1. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 11 Results: “ Vehicle ” Decision Read:“Word is like Weapon.” Decide:“Weapon hurts someone.” Read:“Word is like XXX.” Decide:“Weapon hurts someone.” Read:“Knowledge is like Accessory.” Decide:“Accessory can be showen.” Read:“Knowledge is like XXX.” Decide:“Accessory can be showen.” Read:“Knowledge is like Accessory.” Decide:“Accessory can be showen.”

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

13. 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. 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. 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.

18. Difference of Metaphor Interpretations “Word is like Weapon” (High Familiar) It hurts someone. We can defend someone with it. It is difficult to use... “Knowledge is like Accessory” (Low Familiar) The more we get It, the better it is...? It is needless for our life...? It is something brilliant...?

19. Example of Metaphor Interpretations Interpretation Map of ”Word is like Weapon”.Interpretation Map of ”Knowledge is like Accessory”. Interpretation types and participants are mapped by correspondence analysis (Taira, 2006).

20. Read Text Only Press Spacebar

21. 猫が突然あらわれた （ A cat appeared suddenly. ）

22. 村は XXX に見舞われた （ The village was attacked by XXX. ）

23. 言葉は武器のようだ （ Word is like weapon. ）

24. Yes or No ?

25. 武器は （ Weapon ha ）

27. 人を傷つける （ hurts someone. ）

28. Read Text Only Press Spacebar

29. XXX はよく泣く （ XXX often cries. ）

30. 今日は傘を持っていくといい （ You should take an umbrella today. ）

31. 知識は XXX のようだ （ Knowledge is like XXX. ）

32. Yes or No ?

33. 知識は （ Knowledge ha ）

35. 身につけれる （ can be acquired. ）