Metaphor analysis.docx

Metaphor analysis.docx

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Metaphoranalysis

Title:

MetaphorAnalysis

Abstract:

Theanalysisofmetaphorsisaclassicalresearchthemeinlinguistics,buthasreceivedverylittleattentioninpsychologicalresearchsofar.Metaphoranalysis—asconceptualizedincognitivelinguistics—isproposedhereasaqualitativemethodforpsychologicalresearchforseveralreasons.Metaphorsareculturallyandsociallydefined,yettheyalsorepresentabasiccognitivestrategyofanalogicalproblemsolving.Metaphorsarecontext-sensitive,yetatthesametimetheyareabstractmodelsofrealitymuchinthesamewayasmentalmodelsandschemataincognitivepsychology.Themultifacetedpropertiesofmetaphorsallowforthestudyofmicro-interactionsbetweencognitionandcultureinopenandqualitativeresearchdesigns.Theyalsoenablethebridgingofthegapbetweenquantitative-experimentalandqualitativeapproachesinpsychology.Becausemetaphorsareofhighplausibilityineverydayexperience,metaphorsareavaluabletoolforinterventionsinappliedfieldsofresearchsuchasorganizationalandworkpsychology.

Keywords:

metaphoranalysis,analogy,cognitivelinguistics,context-sensitivity,mentalmodels,schemata,cognitiveanthropology,distributedrepresentation,tacitknowledge

Definitionof"Metaphor"

Metaphorsareanalogieswhichallowustomaponeexperienceintheterminologyofanotherexperienceandthustoacquireanunderstandingofcomplextopicsornewsituations（VOSNIADOU&ORTONY1989）.Thedefinitionofthemetaphorusedherediffersfromoureverydayunderstandingofthemetaphor,whichreferstoitasalinguisticornamentwithexampleslike'Herculesisalion'.Inthefieldsofcognitivelinguistics,themetaphorisdefinedasananalogy（LAKOFF1987,LANGACKER1987）:

Ametaphorconsistsoftheprojectionofoneschema（thesourcedomainofthemetaphor）ontoanotherschema（thetargetdomainofthemetaphor）.Whatisprojectedisthecognitivetopologyofthesourcedomain,thatistheslotsinthesourcedomainaswellastheirrelationwitheachother（LAKOFF&JOHNSON1980,LAKOFF1993）.

MetaphorAnalysisasaMultifacetedResearchPerspective

Forseveralreasons,metaphoranalysisallowsforamultifacetedresearchperspective:

（1）Metaphorsinfluenceinformationprocessing:

Metaphorsnotonlyenablethereflectionandcommunicationofcomplextopicsandtheanticipationofnewsituations,theuseofdifferentmetaphormodelsalsoaffectsfurtherperception,interpretationofexperiencesandpossiblyalsosubsequentactions（GENTNER&GENTNER1983）.Metaphorsthushavenotonlyinstrumentalvalueforself-reflection,anticipationandcommunication,butalsoanimportantfunctionasmindsettings,whichinfluenceourcognitionoftheselfandtheworld（MOSER1998,p.65,OTTATI,RHOADS&GRAESSER1999）.[11]

（2）Metaphorsareareliableandaccessibleoperationalizationoftacitknowledge:

Inresearchontacitknowledgeandtacitexpertise,notonlytherepresentationbutalsotheaccessibilityoftacitknowledgeisanimportantissue（NEUWEG1999,STERNBERG&HORVATH1999）.Metaphorsarealinguisticmanifestationoftacitknowledge,whichiseasilyaccessiblebecausemetaphoricalexpressionscannotbeavoidedineverydayorprofessionallanguage.Accordingtothemethodologicalstandardsinpsychologicalreliabilitymeasures,metaphorscanbereliablyoperationalized（MOSER1998,p.79,OTTATI,RHOADS&GRAESSER1999）.[12]

（3）Metaphorsareholisticrepresentationsofunderstandingandknowledge:

Metaphorsareanexampleofdistributedrepresentationofcomplexknowledgeandanalogicalproblem-solving.Comparedtopropositionalrepresentations,itisarguedthatmentalmodels,andthusalsometaphors,allowforamoreholisticrepresentationofunderstandingandknowledge（SCHNOTZ1988）.Asthemetaphormodel'successisapath'（seeabove）shows,usingmetaphoricalexpressionssuchas'careersteps','tryingtofindtherightpath',etc.,notmerelydocumentshowsomeoneunderstandshisorherpresentsituation,butalsoindicatesamoregeneralunderstandingofsuccess,whichfavorscertainproblem-solvingskillsmorethanothers.[13]

（4）Conventionalmetaphorsareexamplesofautomatedaction:

Likelanguageingeneral,conventionalmetaphorshavebeenlearnedinsocialinteractionaspartofgenerallanguagecompetence.Oncelearned,conventionalmetaphorsbecomesubconsciousandareusedautomaticallyjustlikemostotherlinguisticfeatures.Onlyconsciouseffortandattentioncanchangeorhelpto'unlearn'automatedlanguagebehaviorliketheuseofconventionalmetaphors.Therefore,itcanbeassumedthattheuseofmetaphorsisrelativelyfreeofself-presentationstrategies,whichisanimportantaspectformanypsychologicalresearchquestions.Moreover,recentstudieshaveshownthatautomatedprocessesareveryimportantinactionregulationandresponsiblefortheautomatedandsubconsciousactivationofgoalsandmotives（BARGH&BARNDOLLAR1996,DWECK1996）.Metaphoranalysiscanbeusedtoassessthestructureandcontentoftheimplicittheoriesresponsiblefortheseautomatedandsubconsciousprocesses.[14]

（5）Metaphorsreflectsocialandculturalprocessesofunderstanding:

Metaphorsrepresentgeneralcognitiveabilitiesofanalogicalreasoning,whichcanbeunderstoodinthetermsofschematheoryandthetheoryofmentalmodelsincognitivepsychology.Yetatthesametime,metaphorsarecontext-sensitiveandreflectsocialandculturalprocessesofunderstandingandself-definition.Asstudiesabouttheself-concepthaveshown（MOSER1998）,metaphoricalexpressionsusedinnarrativeinterviewstodescribeoneselfcanbedifferentiatedondifferentlevels.Ontheonehand,themetaphorsourcedomainsusedtotalkabouttheselfseemtobeverylimited.Only22metaphorsourcedomainswerereliablyidentifiedtodescribealargecorpusof4,000metaphoricalexpressions,withthemostfrequenteightmetaphorsourcedomainsalreadydescribing68%ofallmetaphoricalexpressionsused.Themetaphorsidentifiedmostlikelyrepresentthesharedculturalunderstandingoftheself.Ontheotherhand,significantdifferencesinfrequencycouldbefoundwithinthese22metaphorsourcedomains,dependingongender,professionaleducationandpreferredlifestylesofthesubjectsinterviewed.Onathirdlevel,individualpreferencesinmetaphorusewerefound.Theseindividualdifferenceswereanalyzedquantitatively（frequencyofdifferentmetaphorsourcedomains）aswellasqualitativelyinsinglecasestudies（forfurtherdetails,seeMOSER1998）.[15]

（6）Combiningquantitativeandqualitativeapproachestometaphoruse:

Withinalargetextcorpusofmetaphoricalexpressionsasdescribedabove（MOSER1998）,typicalpatternsofmetaphoruseincombinationwithcertaintopicscanonlybedetectedthroughthequantitativeanalysisofthecategoricaldata.Statisticalproceduresusedbytheauthorincludepowerfultoolsfortheanalysisofcategoricaldatasuchasconfiguration-frequency-analysisandcorrespondenceanalysis.Bothprocedureswouldalsomeritmoreattentioninthecontextofqualitativeresearchthantheyreceivetodate.Whilethequantitativeanalysisofmetaphorsrevealsgeneraltendenciesinmetaphoruse,thefullpotentialofmetaphoranalysiscanonlybereachedwhencombiningitwithaqualitativeapproach.Thequalitativeapproachenablestheanalysisofmetaphoruseincontextandunderstandingthefunctionofmetaphoricalexpressionsinthecontextofanarrativetextorinthecontextofabiographicalreconstruction.Thecombinationofqualitativemetaphoranalysiswithcontentanalysisandnarrativetextanalysisprovedtobeespeciallyfruitfulfortheunderstandingofsituational,biographicalandsocialfunctionsofmetaphoruse（seeMOSER1998）.Athirdmethodologicalapproachtothemetaphor,whichiscurrentlyusedbytheauthor,isthestudyofmetaphorsinexperimentallaboratoryresearch.[16]

FieldsofApplication

Asresearchabouttheselfshows（MOSER1998）,itispossibletocombineacognitiveunderstandingofmetaphorwitharesearchscopeinindividual,socialandculturaldifferencesinmetaphoruseandmentalmodelsoftheself.Atthesametime,itprovedtobeveryusefultocombinequalitativeaswellasquantitativeapproachestometaphoranalysis.[17]

Likemanyotherkeyconceptsinpsychologicalresearch,theselfisa'classical'researchtopicformetaphoranalysis,becausepeoplecanonlyspeakmetaphoricallyaboutthecomplexandabstractmatterofthe'self'.Analyzingmetaphorsthusnotonlygivesaccesstothetacitknowledgeandmentalmodelswhichshapetheindividualunderstandingoftheself,butalsototheculturalmodelsprovidedbylanguagetoexpressindividuality,self-conceptandthe'innerworld'.Asdescribedabove,theanalysisofmetaphorsshowedthatonlyveryfewmetaphormodelswereusedaltogether,independentlyofthetopicspeopletalkedaboutandregardlessoftheself-conceptaspecttheyreferredto（MOSER1998,1999a,1999b）.Apartfromthisculturallysharedlevelofunderstandingoftheself,therewerealsosignificantsocialdifferencesinmetaphoruse,suchasprofessionalexperience,futureorientation（careerplans,preferredrelationshipmodel）,andgender.Ontheindividuallevel,certainhabitually-preferredmetaphormodelsoftheselfcouldbeassessed,aswellasdifferencesinmetaphorusefordifferentself-conceptaspects（idealvs.actual,ought,negative,socialself,selfchangeorgenderrole）.Theseresultscouldonlybeobtainedthroughthetriangulationofquantitativeandqualitativemethods,whichallowedtheanalysisofstatisticallysignificantoveralltendenciesinalargedatasetaswellasqualitativedifferencesinsinglecasestudies.Forfurtherd