Understanding metaphor in literature : an empirical approach
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Understanding metaphor in literature : an empirical approach
（Studies in language and linguistics / general editors, Geoffrey Leech & Mick Short）
Longman, 1994
- : csd
- : ppr
Available at / 58 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Based on research done for the author's thesis (doctoral) under the title: Metaphor in literary reception
Includes bibliographical references (p. 248-256) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: ppr ISBN 9780582101180
Description
This is the first, full-scale empirical study of how people understand metaphors in literary texts. It explains how the process of understanding metaphor in literature works and asks why metaphor identification, comprehension and appreciation are special in literary reading.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Reader, text and context: from metaphor as cognition to metaphor in discourse processing
Part 2: Processes: aspects of metaphor understanding
Part 3: Properties: dimensions of metaphor
conclusion - understanding metaphor in literature
- Volume
-
: csd ISBN 9780582217157
Description
It is the aim of this study to present aspects of an empirical theory of metaphor in literary reception and to show how evidence can be collected from readers' processing of metaphor in literary texts, in order to evaluate how that processing relates to the function of metaphor in literature. The book is divided into three parts. Part One is called "Reader, Text, Context". It provides an account of the empirical study of understanding metaphor in literature by discussing present-day developments in psychology and linguistics (Chapter 1) and literary theory (Chapter 2). The author argues that metaphor processing is affected by the three factors of text, reader, and context, and that understanding metaphor in literature can be conceptualized as embodying one specific type of configuration of these factors. In Chapter 3 a first attempt is made at examining whether there is an observable and determinate relation between metaphor processing and literary reading by presenting two empirical studies on the relation between readers' experience of literariness and metaphors.
Text, reader, and context variables were manipulated in order to investigate their effect on the experience of literariness through metaphors. Part Two is concerned with "Processes". Understanding metaphor in literature is not a unitary process, and a number of processing distinctions are proposed in the context of the psychology of reading in Chapter 4. These distinctions are further developed by means of a series of pilot studies in thinking out loud about literary texts, which are presented in Chapter 5. This in turn leads on to a comparative study of the incidence of various kinds of metaphor processing in literary and journalistic reception in Chapter 6. In Part Three, called "Properties",he turns to the role of differences between metaphors. Chapter 7 presents a theoretical framework for the conceptualization and measurement of differences between metaphors. Literary and journalistic metaphors are then compared in Chapter 8 by means of two rating studies designed to tap five basic metaphor dimensions which can be presumed to be valid for all metaphors.
Chapter 9 examines the effect of two of these dimensions, one cognitive and one affective, on the processing data reported in Chapters 3 and 6. In Chapter 10, the author discusses the bearings his findings have on linguistic, psychological, and literary approaches to metaphor. It is the aim of this study to present aspects of an empirical theory of metaphor in literary reception and to show how evidence can be collected from readers' processing of metaphor in literary texts, in order to evaluate how that processing relates to the function of metaphor in literature. The book is divided into three parts. Part One is called "Reader, Text, Context". It provides an account of the empirical study of understanding metaphor in literature by discussing present-day developments in psychology and linguistics (Chapter 1) and literary theory (Chapter 2). The author argues that metaphor processing is affected by the three factors of text, reader, and context, and that understanding metaphor in literature can be conceptualized as embodying one specific type of configuration of these factors.
In Chapter 3 I make a first attempt at examining whether there is an observable and determinate relation between metaphor processing and literary reading by presenting two empirical studies on the relation between readers' experience of literariness and metaphors. Text, reader, and context variables were manipulated in order to investigate their effect on the experience of literariness through metaphors. Part Two is concerned with "Processes". Understanding metaphor in literature is not a unitary process, and a number of processing distinctions are proposed in the context of the psychology of reading in Chapter 4. These distinctions are further developed by means of a series of pilot studies in thinking out loud about literary texts, which are presented in Chapter 5. This in turn leads on to a comparative study of the incidence of various kinds of metaphor processing in literary and journalistic reception in Chapter 6. In Part Three, called "Properties", I turn to the role of differences between metaphors. Chapter 7 presents a theoretical framework for the conceptualization and measurement of differences between metaphors.
Literary and journalistic metaphors are then compared in Chapter 8 by means of two rating studies designed to tap five basic metaphor dimensions which can be presumed to be valid for all metaphors. Chapter 9 examines the effect of two of these dimensions, one cognitive and one affective, on the processing data reported in Chapters 3 and 6. In Chapter 10, I will discuss the bearings my findings have on linguistic, psychological, and literary approaches to metaphor. Part contents.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 Reader, text and context: from metaphor as cognition to metaphor in discourse processing - the cognitive turn, conceptual and linguistic metaphor - a structural view, metaphor as non-literal analogical mapping - a processing view, analogical mappings in discourse processing, linguistic metaphor, conclusion
- metaphor in literary discourse processing - literary criticism and the psychology of reading, metaphor in literary discourse, typically literary metaphors, typically literary use of metaphors
- metaphor and literariness - attention to metaphor, effects of literary socialization and degree of metaphoricity. Part Two - Processes: aspects of metaphor understanding - aspects of text processing, metaphor in text processing, metaphor in literary text-processing
- metaphor processing in thinking out loud - thinking out loud in the empirical study of literature, pilot studies in thinking out loud
- metaphor processing in literature and journalism - introduction, method, results, discussion, additional analyses - textual interest and reader performance in thinking out loud. Part Three - Properties: dimensions of metaphor - metaphors and types of discourse, the role of the text, dimensions of metaphor, metaphors in science and literature, poetic and constructed metaphors, conclusion - literary and non-literary metaphor
- literary and journalistic metaphors - dimensions and properties of 96 English-language metaphors, a follow-up study with 164 Dutch metaphors
- properties and processes - metaphor properties, properties and processes in underlining, properties and processes in thinking out loud
- conclusion - understanding metaphor in literature.
by "Nielsen BookData"