Figurative Language

Figurative Language
Figurative
Language
How do you interpret the following utterances?
My roommate is a pig.
I thought I was going to kick the bucket.
I have a million things to do.
Do you know the time?
Who do you think you are?
The gallbladder in room 6 wants a sleeping pill.
Figurative Language
The cafeteria line was a mile long.
Hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration)
He flipped his lid
Idiom (conventionalized nonliteral expression)
Can you pass the salt?
Indirect speech act
Figurative Language
What lovely weather!
Irony (opposite meaning intended)
The road was a snake.
Metaphor (implicit comparison)
Mozart wrote some decent tunes.
Understatement
Three theories of comprehension
Pragmatic Theory
Pragmatic theory
Conceptual metaphor theory
Class inclusion theory
We comprehend figurative language by first
considering the literal meaning, then
rejecting it
The recognition problem
1

The recognition problem
One possibility – Is the literal
interpretation true or false?
Deb’s a real tiger
?
The recognition problem
BUT… many literally true expressions are
assigned a non-literal meaning
John is a real Marine
My wife is an animal
The recognition problem
Reject the literal meaning based on
pragmatics? (Grice, 1989)
Pragmatics = the social rules underlying
language use
Can you get me a beer?
Rules of Conversation
Grice’s Cooperative Principle:
What we say in conversation should further
the purposes of the conversation
Kim: How are you today?
Sandy: Oh, Harrisburg is the capital of
Pennsylvania.
Kim: Really? I though the weather would be
warmer.
Sandy: Well, in my opinion, the soup could
use a little more salt.
Felicitous or infelicitous?
What do you do for a living?
I’m a psychology professor at Iowa State
What do you do for a living?
#I have a job
What do you do for a living?
#My favorite color is purple, too!
Grice’s Maxims
Rules of Conversation
The Maxims of Quality:
Do not say what you believe to be false.
Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
The venom of the purple-toothed spider isn’t
strong enough to kill people.
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Grice’s Maxims
Rules of Conversation
The Maxim of Relevance
Be relevant.
Kim: How are you today?
Sandy: Oh, Harrisburg is the capital of
Pennsylvania.
Alana: Is Jamie dating anyone these days?
Sam: Well, she goes to Cleveland every weekend.
Rules of Conversation
Grice’s Maxims
The Maxims of Quantity
Make your contribution as informative as required.
Do not make your contribution more informative
than is required.
Kim: Where did you grow up?
Sandy: On the corner of Main Street and Minor Road.
In Dubuque.
In Dubuque, Iowa.
In Iowa.
In the Midwest.
In the United States.
Grice’s Maxims
Rules of Conversation
The Maxims of Manner
Avoid obscurity of expression (avoid jargon and
needless complexity).
Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief.
Be orderly.
What do you do for a living?
#What I do is that I’m a professor and the subject
matter that I teach is psychology.
Grice’s Maxims
Rules of Conversation
The Maxims of Manner
Avoid obscurity of expression (avoid jargon and
needless complexity).
Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief.
Be orderly.
#My mother didn’t really want my room to be painted purple. I
was worried that I wouldn’t get good grades at the new school.
When I was a child, m favorite color was purple. I worked very
hard in all of my classes to get good grades. My mother told me
that if I got good grades, I could paint my room.
Flouting the maxims
Flouting the maxims
How many times have you…
…told a lie?
… changed the subject?
… given too much information?
… said something confusing?
Good morning!
I wonder
what he
meant by
that?
3

Flouting the maxims
Dear Colleague:
I am very pleased to be able to recommend Irving
Smith to you. Mr. Smith is a model student. He
dresses well and is extremely punctual. I have
known Mr. Smith for three years now, and in every
way I have found him to be most cooperative. His
wife is charming.
Sincerely,
John Jones
Professor
Pragmatic Theory
Can you get me a beer?
Pragmatic Theory
Pragmatic Theory
We comprehend figurative language by first
considering the literal meaning, then
rejecting it (based on Gricean maxims)
Searle (1975) outlines several stages…
Searle’s stages
Stage 1: Extract literal meaning
Stage 2: Listener decides whether literal
meaning is what was intended
Stage 3: Compute an alternative meaning
Pragmatic Theory
Comprehending Metaphors
Prediction: Literal meaning should be easier
or faster to comprehend than figurative
meaning
“a child is a snowflake”
topic
vehicle
ground = implied similarity between topic and vehicle
4

Connine and Blasko (1993)
“Indecision is a whirlpool”
Participants listened to novel metaphors
“Indecision is a whirlpool”
followed by visually presented words
WATER
“Indecision is a whirlpool”
Connine and Blasko (1993)
CONFUSION
water
confusion
equally fast
Ortony, Schallert, Reynolds, & Antos (1978)
Overall, evidence from early studies was
mixed
Ortony et al. suggested that the Pragmatic
account is too limited
Maybe context serves as a conceptual
framework?
Ortony, Schallert, Reynolds, & Antos (1978)
Exp 1
Predictions:
1. With insufficient context, metaphors
should take longer to process than
targets requiring a literal interpretation
2. With sufficient context, metaphors
should not take longer to process
5

Materials
“Vignettes” consisting of antecedent context and
sentence-length target
Literal inducing context:
Approaching the enemy infantry, the men were
worried about touching off landmines. They were
very anxious that their presence would be
detected prematurely. These fears were
compounded by the knowledge that they might be
isolated from their reinforcements. The outlook
was grim.
Target:
Regardless of the danger, the troops marched on.
Materials
“Vignettes” consisting of antecedent context and
sentence-length target
Metaphorical inducing context:
The children continued to annoy their babysitter.
She told the little boys she would not tolerate any
more bad behavior. Climbing all over the furniture
was not allowed. She threatened to spank them if
they continued to stomp, run and scream around
the room. The children knew that her spankings
hurt.
Target:
Regardless of the danger, the troops marched on.
Short context condition
Materials
Approaching the enemy infantry, regardless of
the danger, the troops marched on.
The children continued to annoy their babysitter.
Regardless of the danger, the troops marched on.
Procedure
•Press space bar
•Read and understand context
•Press space bar
•Read and understand target reading time
•Press space bar
•Complete posttest (write brief summaries of
how each target was interpreted)
Results
Conclusion
Reading
Time
(ms)
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
sig
Literals
Metaphors
We don’t always need to interpret an
utterance literally before constructing a
non-literal interpretation
Refutes the stage model
2000
n.s.
1500
Short
Context length
Long
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Experiment 2
Claim: In some cases, non-literal uses of
language might be processed faster than
literal uses
For example, if context sets up the
expectation that something is irritating,
it might predict the expression a pain in
the ____
Materials (Exp 2)
Three versions of context
Idiom:
Dean spoiled the surprise that Joan had been
planning for their mother’s birthday party. When
he realized what he’d done, he apologized for
having…
let the cat out of the bag
Materials (Exp 2)
Literal:
Walking back from the store, Anne found a
kitten which she put in with her groceries. She
got home and her puppy went wild when she…
Control:
let the cat out of the bag
Dean spoiled the surprise that Joan had been
planning for their mother’s birthday party. When
he realized what he’d done, he apologized for
having…
Results (Exp 2)
Reading time
Idiom Control Literal
1472 1487 1682
revealed the secret
Glucksberg, Glidea, & Bookin (1982)
Stroop interference
Claim: People cannot ignore metaphors
Task: Verification
Interference effect as in the Stroop task
You will see some words. Name the color
of the ink each word is printed in.
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Glucksberg, Glidea, & Bookin (1982)
Task: Verification
Statements that are literally false but
metaphorically true
Glucksberg, Glidea, & Bookin (1982)
A. True high-typical sentences
Some birds are robins
B. True low-typical sentences
Some birds are penguins
C. Standard False sentences
Some birds are apples
D. Metaphors
Some jobs are jails Some flutes are birds
E. Scrambled metaphors
Some jobs are birds Some flutes are jails
Glucksberg, Glidea, & Bookin (1982)
A. True high-typical sentences
Some birds are robins
B. True low-typical sentences
Some birds are penguins
Manipulation check: Mean RT for high-typical True
sentences was faster than that for low-typical True
sentences
Glucksberg, Glidea, & Bookin (1982)
If participants ignore the nonliteral meanings of
the metaphors:
False response RTs to metaphors = False response
RTs to scrambled metaphors
BUT, if participants automatically register any
nonliteral meanings that are available:
False response RTs to metaphors > False response
RTs to scrambled metaphors
Mean
True
Some fish are trout 1114
Some birds are eagles
False
Some fish are eagles 1185
Some birds are trout
Gildea & Glucksberg (1983)
Question: Do figurative primes facilitate
metaphor comprehension more than literal
primes?
Scrambled metaphors
Some jobs are snakes 1162
Some roads are jails
Metaphors
Some jobs are jails 1239
Some roads are snakes
8

Materials
Materials
“Poor” metaphor targets chosen from
previous studies
Smiles are razors
Figurative priming sentence
Some remarks are cutting
Literal priming sentence
Some tools are cutting
Sentence Type
Filler sentences
Standard true
Standard false
Primes/target metaphors
Scrambled metaphors
Examples
Some birds are eagles
All trout are fish
Some birds are trout
All eagles are fish
Some foods are unhealthy/
All criminals are germs
Some songs are soothing/
All hands are medicine
All criminals are medicine/
All hands are germs
Procedure
Results
*
[press start key]
1500
sig.
Metaphor
Scrambled
Some winters are sharp
true
false
RT
(ms)
1400
n.s.
sig.
1300
All icicles are knives
true
false
1200
Unprimed Figurative prime Literal prime
CONTEXTUAL CONDITION
Conclusion
Conceptual Metaphor Theory
Both literal and figurative priming
facilitate metaphor comprehension
Metaphors are instantiations of
underlying conceptual metaphors
Contradicts predictions of Pragmatic
Theory
LOVE IS A JOURNEY
TIME IS MONEY
ARGUMENT IS WAR
9

Conceptual Metaphor Theory
When we encounter a verbal metaphor
it automatically activates the
corresponding conceptual metaphor
Nayak & Gibbs (1990)
American English has many idioms with
similar figurative meanings
Nayak & Gibbs (1990)
Conceptual Metaphor Theory
American English has many idioms with
similar figurative meanings
Blow your stack
Lose your cool
Flip your lid
Hit the roof
Get hot under the collar
Paraphrase each of the following metaphors:
Our love is a bumpy roller-coaster ride.
Our love is a voyage to the bottom of the
sea.
Our love is a dusty road traveled.
Conceptual Metaphor Theory
Question: Do the paraphrases reflect
journey-related properties?
Glucksberg, Keysar, & McGlone
(1992)
Three sets of paraphrases were quite
different
Very few made reference to the journey
metaphor
Concluded that conceptual metaphors
don’t need to be activated in processing
metaphors
10

Class Inclusion Theory
Metaphors are class inclusion statements
My job is a jail
A robin is a bird
Class Inclusion Theory
Metaphors are non-reversible:
My job is a jail = My jail is a job
Jail belongs to several categories:
Punishments (fines, tickets)
Buildings (hotels, hospitals, dorms)
Unpleasant conditions
Class Inclusion Theory
Glucksberg, Manfredi, & McGlone (1997)
Directing attention to literal categories disrupts
comprehension
Some tables are made of wood
My lawyer was a shark
Class Inclusion Theory
The comprehension and interpretive processes
people use to understand language in discourse
are common to literal and figurative language
use
Some lawyers are married
My lawyer was a shark
Sharks can swim
My lawyer was a shark
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