Figurative Language in Atypical Contexts: Searching for Creativity in Narco Language
Literal language is commonly defined in terms of direct meaning, i.e., any literal utterance must convey a unique meaning. Such meaning has to be the one conventionally accepted to guarantee a successful communication. Figurative language, on the other hand, could be regarded as the opposite of lite...
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MDPI AG
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/1642 |
| _version_ | 1797488984641765376 |
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| author | Antonio Reyes Rafael Saldívar |
| author_facet | Antonio Reyes Rafael Saldívar |
| author_sort | Antonio Reyes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Literal language is commonly defined in terms of direct meaning, i.e., any literal utterance must convey a unique meaning. Such meaning has to be the one conventionally accepted to guarantee a successful communication. Figurative language, on the other hand, could be regarded as the opposite of literal language. Thus, whereas the latter is assumed to communicate a direct and explicit meaning, figurative language is related to the communication of veiled or implicit meanings. For instance, the word <i>pozolero</i> (stewmaker), which literally refers to a person who cooks a traditional Mexican food, when it is used in a figurative utterance, it can refer to different concepts, which are hardly related to food. Therefore, it can work instead of hitman, murderer, drug dealer, and others, in such a way its literal meaning is intentionally deviated in favor of secondary interpretations. In this regard, we are focused on analyzing the use of figurative language in an atypical context: drug trafficking. To this end, a corpus about narco language in Spanish was built. This corpus was used to train a word embedding model to identify creative ways to name narco-related concepts. The results show that various concepts are commonly expressed through figurative devices, such as metaphor, metonymy, or mental imagery. This fact corroborates that figurative language is quite recurrent in our daily communication, regardless of the context. In addition, we show how this <i>creativity</i> can be recognized by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:10:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-597f2d46a63044a5aa3b5e39f24460d9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:10:02Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-597f2d46a63044a5aa3b5e39f24460d92023-11-23T16:01:00ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-02-01123164210.3390/app12031642Figurative Language in Atypical Contexts: Searching for Creativity in Narco LanguageAntonio Reyes0Rafael Saldívar1School of Languages, Autonomous University of Baja California, Mexicali 21100, MexicoSchool of Languages, Autonomous University of Baja California, Mexicali 21100, MexicoLiteral language is commonly defined in terms of direct meaning, i.e., any literal utterance must convey a unique meaning. Such meaning has to be the one conventionally accepted to guarantee a successful communication. Figurative language, on the other hand, could be regarded as the opposite of literal language. Thus, whereas the latter is assumed to communicate a direct and explicit meaning, figurative language is related to the communication of veiled or implicit meanings. For instance, the word <i>pozolero</i> (stewmaker), which literally refers to a person who cooks a traditional Mexican food, when it is used in a figurative utterance, it can refer to different concepts, which are hardly related to food. Therefore, it can work instead of hitman, murderer, drug dealer, and others, in such a way its literal meaning is intentionally deviated in favor of secondary interpretations. In this regard, we are focused on analyzing the use of figurative language in an atypical context: drug trafficking. To this end, a corpus about narco language in Spanish was built. This corpus was used to train a word embedding model to identify creative ways to name narco-related concepts. The results show that various concepts are commonly expressed through figurative devices, such as metaphor, metonymy, or mental imagery. This fact corroborates that figurative language is quite recurrent in our daily communication, regardless of the context. In addition, we show how this <i>creativity</i> can be recognized by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/1642figurative languagenarco languagemetaphormetonymy |
| spellingShingle | Antonio Reyes Rafael Saldívar Figurative Language in Atypical Contexts: Searching for Creativity in Narco Language Applied Sciences figurative language narco language metaphor metonymy |
| title | Figurative Language in Atypical Contexts: Searching for Creativity in Narco Language |
| title_full | Figurative Language in Atypical Contexts: Searching for Creativity in Narco Language |
| title_fullStr | Figurative Language in Atypical Contexts: Searching for Creativity in Narco Language |
| title_full_unstemmed | Figurative Language in Atypical Contexts: Searching for Creativity in Narco Language |
| title_short | Figurative Language in Atypical Contexts: Searching for Creativity in Narco Language |
| title_sort | figurative language in atypical contexts searching for creativity in narco language |
| topic | figurative language narco language metaphor metonymy |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/1642 |
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