Psycholinguistic approaches to figuration
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Gareth Carrol
Abstract
Figurative language provides a testing bed for language processing in general, since it requires speakers to utilize a sophisticated range of linguistic, pragmatic and cognitive skills to derive an appropriate interpretation. The toolkit of psycholinguistics, where precise measurements of behavioural responses help to build a model of underlying cognitive processes, can enrich our understanding of this complex topic. Two techniques that have been fruitfully applied to the study of figurative language are cross-modal priming and eye-tracking. Drawing on a range of example studies from the literature, this chapter will demonstrate how figurative language research can benefit from the application of psycholinguistic techniques. It concludes with a consideration of how experimental results can be interpreted against existing theories and models.
Abstract
Figurative language provides a testing bed for language processing in general, since it requires speakers to utilize a sophisticated range of linguistic, pragmatic and cognitive skills to derive an appropriate interpretation. The toolkit of psycholinguistics, where precise measurements of behavioural responses help to build a model of underlying cognitive processes, can enrich our understanding of this complex topic. Two techniques that have been fruitfully applied to the study of figurative language are cross-modal priming and eye-tracking. Drawing on a range of example studies from the literature, this chapter will demonstrate how figurative language research can benefit from the application of psycholinguistic techniques. It concludes with a consideration of how experimental results can be interpreted against existing theories and models.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction. Figurative language 1
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Part I. Intersubjectivity and interaction
- Second-order empathy, pragmatic ambiguity, and irony 19
- Desiderata for metaphor theory, the Motivation & Sedimentation Model and motion-emotion metaphoremes 41
- Evaluating metaphor accounts via their pragmatic effects 75
- The multimodal negotiation of irony and humor in interaction 109
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Part II. Mechanisms and processes
- Metaphor and irony 139
- Metonymic indeterminacy and metalepsis 175
- On verbal and situational irony 213
- On figurative ambiguity, marking, and low-salience meanings 241
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Part III. Usage and variation
- Metaphor, metonymy and polysemy 287
- Psycholinguistic approaches to figuration 307
- The fabric of metaphor in discourse 339
- Sources of verbal humor in the lexicon 357
- Measuring the impact of (non)figurativity in the cultural conceptualization of emotions in the two main national varieties of Portuguese 387
- Index 439
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction. Figurative language 1
-
Part I. Intersubjectivity and interaction
- Second-order empathy, pragmatic ambiguity, and irony 19
- Desiderata for metaphor theory, the Motivation & Sedimentation Model and motion-emotion metaphoremes 41
- Evaluating metaphor accounts via their pragmatic effects 75
- The multimodal negotiation of irony and humor in interaction 109
-
Part II. Mechanisms and processes
- Metaphor and irony 139
- Metonymic indeterminacy and metalepsis 175
- On verbal and situational irony 213
- On figurative ambiguity, marking, and low-salience meanings 241
-
Part III. Usage and variation
- Metaphor, metonymy and polysemy 287
- Psycholinguistic approaches to figuration 307
- The fabric of metaphor in discourse 339
- Sources of verbal humor in the lexicon 357
- Measuring the impact of (non)figurativity in the cultural conceptualization of emotions in the two main national varieties of Portuguese 387
- Index 439
