Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The aim of the dissertation was to investigate the Conceptual Metaphor Theory\n(CMT, Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999).The CMT proposes that abstract\nconcepts are partly structured by concrete concepts through the mechanism\nof metaphorical mapping. In Chapter 2 we wanted to investigate the role of\nthe vehicle (concrete concept) in the comprehension process of the\ntopic(abstract concept) in a metaphorical sentence, but we\nfound mixed results. In Chapter 3 to Chapter 6 we investigated the role of\nconcrete concepts during conceptual tasks about abstract concepts. Chapter\n3 shows that participants’ performance over a similarity decision task\n(similar or dissimilar colours) was influenced by the distance of\npresentation (near or far) in congruence with the conceptual metaphor\n(similar is near and dissimilar is far). Chapter 4 shows that\nparticipants’ performance over a categorization task (same category vs.\ndifferent category) on pictures (animals or vehicles) was influenced by\nthe position of a frame (both pictures in or one out of the frame) in\ncongruence with the conceptual metaphor (same category is in container and\ndifferent category is out of container). Chapter 5 showed evidence that\nsituational quantity (e.g., 5 bananas) was partly represented by\nverticality (more is up and less is down) but simple numbers (e.g., 5)\nnot. Chapter 6 could not show evidence that love is partly represented by\nwarmth or closeness. In conclusion, the studies in this thesis partly\nsupport the CMT.
Author: Inge Boot
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1715219569