The farmers sowed seeds and hopes
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Yeshayahu Shen
Abstract
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 (seeds and hopes) seems more natural than its inverse (hopes and seeds) since seeds (the more concrete noun) is conceptually more prominent than hopes. This linear precedence of prominent items iconically mirrors their ‘cognitive precedence’, namely, the fact that they are retrieved from memory before less prominent counterparts (Kelly et al. 1986, Osgood & Bock 1977). Three factors contributing to conceptual prominence affect word abstractness: ordering – concrete terms tend to precede more abstract ones; animacy – animate terms tend to precede non-animate ones; and salience – salient terms tend to precede less salient ones. We discuss the findings of a series of psychological experiments and corpus studies that lend support to this argument.
Abstract
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 (seeds and hopes) seems more natural than its inverse (hopes and seeds) since seeds (the more concrete noun) is conceptually more prominent than hopes. This linear precedence of prominent items iconically mirrors their ‘cognitive precedence’, namely, the fact that they are retrieved from memory before less prominent counterparts (Kelly et al. 1986, Osgood & Bock 1977). Three factors contributing to conceptual prominence affect word abstractness: ordering – concrete terms tend to precede more abstract ones; animacy – animate terms tend to precede non-animate ones; and salience – salient terms tend to precede less salient ones. We discuss the findings of a series of psychological experiments and corpus studies that lend support to this argument.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements ix
- Introduction xi
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Part I. Word forms, word formation, and meaning
- Toward a phonosemantic definition of iconic words 3
- Iconic thinking and the contact-induced transfer of linguistic material 19
- Ezra Pound among the Mawu 39
- Cognitive iconic grounding of reduplication in language 55
- Imagic iconicity in the Chinese language 83
- Words in the mirror 101
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Part II. General theoretical approaches
- Un mélange genevois 135
- How to put art and brain together 149
- Image, diagram, and metaphor 157
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Part III. Narrative grammatical structures
- The farmers sowed seeds and hopes 175
- Non-iconic chronology in English narrative texts 191
- A burning world of war 211
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Part IV. Cognitive poetics
- Aesthetic qualities as structural resemblance 233
- Mental space mapping in classical Chinese poetry 251
- Iconicity in conceptual blending 269
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Part V. Acoustic and visual iconicity
- Thematized iconicity and iconic devices in the modern novel 291
- Iconicity and intermediality in Charles Simic’s Dime-Store Alchemy 313
- Words, like shells, are signs as well as things 327
- Unveiling creative subplots through the non-traditional application of diagrammatic iconicity 343
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Part VI. Intermedial iconicity
- The iconic indexicality of photography 355
- Unbinding the text 369
- Argumentative, iconic, and indexical structures in Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin 389
- John Irving’s A Widow for One Year and Tod Williams’ The Door in the Floor as ‘(mult-)i-conic’ works of art 405
- Author index 423
- Subject index 425
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements ix
- Introduction xi
-
Part I. Word forms, word formation, and meaning
- Toward a phonosemantic definition of iconic words 3
- Iconic thinking and the contact-induced transfer of linguistic material 19
- Ezra Pound among the Mawu 39
- Cognitive iconic grounding of reduplication in language 55
- Imagic iconicity in the Chinese language 83
- Words in the mirror 101
-
Part II. General theoretical approaches
- Un mélange genevois 135
- How to put art and brain together 149
- Image, diagram, and metaphor 157
-
Part III. Narrative grammatical structures
- The farmers sowed seeds and hopes 175
- Non-iconic chronology in English narrative texts 191
- A burning world of war 211
-
Part IV. Cognitive poetics
- Aesthetic qualities as structural resemblance 233
- Mental space mapping in classical Chinese poetry 251
- Iconicity in conceptual blending 269
-
Part V. Acoustic and visual iconicity
- Thematized iconicity and iconic devices in the modern novel 291
- Iconicity and intermediality in Charles Simic’s Dime-Store Alchemy 313
- Words, like shells, are signs as well as things 327
- Unveiling creative subplots through the non-traditional application of diagrammatic iconicity 343
-
Part VI. Intermedial iconicity
- The iconic indexicality of photography 355
- Unbinding the text 369
- Argumentative, iconic, and indexical structures in Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin 389
- John Irving’s A Widow for One Year and Tod Williams’ The Door in the Floor as ‘(mult-)i-conic’ works of art 405
- Author index 423
- Subject index 425
