The effect of metaphor familiarity on semantic activation.

1. The effect of metaphor familiarity on semantic activation. Tomohiro Taira (sakusha@syd.odn.ne.jp) Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University 2006.1.16 (Mon) Satellite workshop on metaphor and story understanding.

2. Research Questions • What does the metaphor familiarity mean? • High Familiar expressions are nearly equivalent to “literal” ones. • “Familiarity” helps us research on “Language Comprehension”. • How do we use the knowledge of words in metaphor comprehension? • “Topic” is like “Vehicle” • Why do we feel topic similar to vehicle?

3. Metaphor Familiarity • Metaphor familiarity reflects the activation difference of the metaphorical meanings. • High familiar metaphors activate the metaphorical meanings, but Low ones do not (Blasko & Connine, 1993). • Word is like Weapon (High Familiar) • HURT......Activated • Knowledge is like Accessory (Low Familiar) • SHOW......Not Activated

4. What is activated by Metaphor? • Interpretations of “Word is like Weapon” • It hurts someone. • We can defend someone with it. • It is difficult to use... Topic: Word hurts someone...? Vehicle: Weapon hurts someone...?

5. Dual Reference Process • Gernsbacher et al.(2001), Glucksberg (2003) • Metaphor vehicles have dual reference, and can refer either at a subordinate level or at a superordinate level. • “Defense lawyer is shark.” • Shark: Predatory creature ……Enhanced • Shark: Marine creature ……Suppressed • Metaphor vehicle activates the metaphorical meanings.

6. Questions • How is the effect of metaphor familiarity on the propositional representation? • Are the effect of high familiar metaphor and the effect of low familiar metaphor same? • Are the activation patterns of metaphor topic and metaphor vehicle same?

7. Priming Measures in Japanese • Lexical Decision Task • to decide whether or not the word correctly spells a word • HURT ○ • HKES × • Meaningfulness Decision Task (Iseki, 2003) • to decide whether a series of short sentences was meaningful or not. • Weapon / hurts someone. ○ • Weapon / sing a song. ×

8. Method • Participants • 44 Kyoto University undergraduates. All native Japanese speakers. • Materials • 16 metaphors • High Familiar: “Word is like Weapon.” • Low Familiar: “Knowledge is like Accessory.” • Short sentences related to metaphors • (Word / Weapon) hurts someone. • (Knowledge / Accessory) can be shown.

9. Method. Procedure • Reading Task • Participants were required to read the short sentences as quickly as possible. • A few sentences were presented in series, the last one was the prime metaphor. • Meaningfulness Decision Task • Participants were required to decide whether the connections between the subject and the predicate are meaningful or not. • Decision time was collected.

10. Method: Conditions • Form of Prime Metaphor • Complete metaphor : Word is like Weapon. • Incomplete metaphor : Word is like XXX. • The Subject presented in Decision Task • Vehicle Decision • 言葉は / 人を傷つける　(Word / hurts someone) • Topic Decision • 武器は / 人を傷つける　(Weapon / hurts someone)

11. Read: “Knowledge is like Accessory.” Decide: “Accessory can be showen.” Read: “Word is like Weapon.” Decide: “Weapon hurts someone.” Read: “Knowledge is like Accessory.” Decide: “Accessory can be showen.” Read: “Word is like XXX.” Decide: “Weapon hurts someone.” Read: “Knowledge is like XXX.” Decide: “Accessory can be showen.” Results: “Vehicle” Decision

12. Results: “Topic” Decision The interaction between metaphor forms and familiarity is no significant.

13. Discussion. Form of Prime Metaphor • High Familiar Metaphor • The metaphorical meanings are activated in the vehicle decision. • They are not activated in the topic decision. • Low Familiar Metaphor • The metaphorical meanings are not activated both in vehicle and topic decision. ...The different pattern of activation was shown.

14. Discussion. The Subject in the Task • Vehicle Decision • High familiar metaphor vehicles activate metaphorical meanings, but low familiar metaphors ones do not. • Topic Decision • The difference of form of prime metaphor have no effect on activation of topic. • ...because of asymmetry of the role of topic and vehicle...? • ...because the metaphor topics are presented both in complete and incomplete metaphor conditions...?

15. Conclusion • Metaphor familiarity shows the difference of the metaphorical meanings activation in the vehicles. • Comprehension of high familiar metaphor depends on the activation of vehicle metaphorical meanings. • The pattern of topic activation and vehicle activation are different. • Activations of metaphor topic and vehicle are asymmetry.

16. Thank you for your attention!

17. Reference • Blasko, D. and Connie, C.M. (1993) Effects of familiarity and aptness on metaphor processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 19(2), 295-308 • Gernsbacher, M. A., Keyser, B., Robertson, R. R. W., & Werner, N. K. 2001 The role of suppression and enhancement in understanding metaphors. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 433-450. • Glucksberg, S. 2003 The psycholinguistics of metaphor. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 92-96. • Iseki, R. 2003 An investigation of the unit of activation in on-line inferences during text processing: word unit or proposition-unit? The Japanese Journal of Psychology, 74, 362-371.