Conceptual Metaphor

ABSTRACT The use of metaphorical imagery as a rhetorical resource in the teaching of singing represents a research topic that inserts into de debate between two pedagogical paradigms of Vocal Technique: the Traditional and the Contemporary. Despite the discussion around it, the inquiry about the nature of the images that teachers use in the teaching of singing has not occupied an important place, nor in the contemporary or classic texts of the discipline. The notion of Conceptual Metaphor proposed by Lakoff & Johnson (1980, 1999) to explain the relationship between language and the bodily attitudes that language comprehension involves, appears relevant to a reconsideration of metaphor in Vocal Pedagogy, not as a rhetorical resource, but as means of understanding, and therefore, as a preferred support for the promotion of the content. In this paper we reflect upon the nature and structure of the Cross-Domain Mappings that take place in the process of Metaphorical Projection, in the context of a singing class, with particular attention to the type of knowledge that the teacher is trying to promote in the student. La utilización de imágenes como recurso retórico en la enseñanza del canto constituye un tópico de investigación que se inserta al interior del debate entre dos paradigmas pedagógicos de la técnica vocal: el tradicional y el contemporáneo. A pesar de discutir en torno a ello, la indagación sobre la naturaleza de las imágenes que los docentes utilizan en la enseñanza del canto no ha ocupado un sitio importante en los textos clásicos y contemporáneos de la disciplina. La noción de Metáfora Conceptual que propusieron Lakoff y Johnson (1980, 1999) para explicar la vinculación entre el lenguaje y las actitudes corporales que la propia comprensión del lenguaje entraña, resulta pertinente para una reconsideración de la metáfora en la Pedagogía Vocal no como recurso de la retórica, sino como recurso del entendimiento, y por lo tanto, como soporte privilegiado para la circulación de los contenidos. En este trabajo se reflexiona acerca de la naturaleza y la estructura de los Mapeos Transdominio que tienen lugar en el proceso de proyección metafórica, en el contexto de la clase de Canto, atendiendo particularmente al tipo de conocimiento que a través de él se intenta promover en el alumno.

The paper aims at clarifying whether and to what extent expertise plays a role in the detection of ambiguity fallacies, such as quaternio terminorum, where a metaphor is the middle term in one of the premises (metaphoric fallacy). We tested a group of (N=40) non-experts adults and a group of (N=40) experts adults (scholars having a strong training in philosophical logic), by using a series of verbally presented arguments, having the structure of quaternio terminorum and containing either a lexical ambiguous or a metaphorical middle term. The experimental results of the study show that non-experts tend to judge sound quaternio terminorum with lexicalized metaphors as middle terms, when the conclusion of the argument is far from being patently false. Nonetheless, with plausible conclusion. However, this effect is mitigated by expertise.

The authors study the ways the COVID-19 pandemic is represented in the media in seven languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Slovak, Polish, German, English, and Italian) with the aim of throwing light on its universal and culturally specific features. The media part of the article considers the COVID-19 pandemic as hard news, while its linguistic section focuses on the literal and metaphoric representation of this phenomenon and its instantiation in the Internet memes.

An increasing number of studies have investigated non-literal language, including metaphors, idioms, metonymy, or irony, with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, key questions regarding its neuroanatomy remain controversial. In this work, we used coordinate-based activation-likelihood estimations to merge available fMRI data on non-literal language. A literature search identified 38 fMRI studies on non-literal language (24 metaphor studies, 14 non-salient stimuli studies, 7 idiom studies, 8 irony studies, and 1 metonymy study). Twenty-eight studies with direct comparisons of non-literal and literal studies were included in the main meta-analysis. Sub-analyses for metaphors, idioms, irony, salient metaphors, and non-salient metaphors as well as studies on sentence level were conducted. Studies reported 409 activation foci, of which 129 (32%) were in the right hemisphere. These meta-analyses indicate that a predominantly left lateralised network, including the left and right inferior frontal gyrus; the left, middle, and superior temporal gyrus; and medial prefrontal, superior frontal, cerebellar, parahippocampal, precentral, and inferior parietal regions, is important for non-literal expressions.

The present paper examines the nature, formation patterns, types, and correlations of poreionymic backronyms, i.e. phrases serving as alternative interpretations of acronyms and nonacronyms designating transport brands, namely cars, both on theoretical and empirical planes. Since backronyms are likely to be confused with other linguistic phenomena, such as acrostics, apronyms, disabbreviations, and recursive acronyms, the differences between these notions are also analysed in the article.