On choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2.0: the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body-object interaction on metaphor production
In a metaphor, such as language is a bridge, two distinct concepts known as the topic (i.e., language) and vehicle (i.e., bridge) are juxtaposed to produce figurative meaning. Previous work demonstrated that, when creating metaphors, participants choose vehicles that are concrete, rather than abstra...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1216561/full |
| _version_ | 1797692755187597312 |
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| author | Hamad Al-Azary Hamad Al-Azary Albert N. Katz |
| author_facet | Hamad Al-Azary Hamad Al-Azary Albert N. Katz |
| author_sort | Hamad Al-Azary |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In a metaphor, such as language is a bridge, two distinct concepts known as the topic (i.e., language) and vehicle (i.e., bridge) are juxtaposed to produce figurative meaning. Previous work demonstrated that, when creating metaphors, participants choose vehicles that are concrete, rather than abstract, and are also a moderate semantic distance away from the topic. However, little is known about the semantic representations underlying metaphor production beyond topic-vehicle semantic distance and vehicle concreteness. Here, we studied the role of two semantic richness variables in metaphor production – semantic neighborhood density (SND), which measures the proximity of a word and its associations in semantic space, and body-object interaction (BOI), which reflects the ease with which a human body can motorically interact with a word’s referent. In each trial, participants were presented with an abstract topic, such as miracle, and were instructed to make an apt and comprehensible metaphor by choosing a vehicle word (e.g., lighthouse). All of the topics were abstract but half were high-SND (from dense semantic neighborhoods) and half were low-SND (from sparse semantic neighborhoods). Similarly, half of the potential vehicle words were either high or low in SND and also differed on BOI such that half were high-BOI (e.g., bicycle), whereas half were low-BOI (e.g., rainbow). We observed a three-way interaction such that participants selected low-BOI, rather than high-BOI, vehicle words when topics or vehicles were high-SND. We interpret this finding to suggest that participants attempt to reduce the overall semantic richness of their created metaphors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T02:33:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c6102435b0e44f9190849bc0b698065e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T02:33:10Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-c6102435b0e44f9190849bc0b698065e2023-09-05T06:49:27ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-09-011410.3389/fpsyg.2023.12165611216561On choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2.0: the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body-object interaction on metaphor productionHamad Al-Azary0Hamad Al-Azary1Albert N. Katz2Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Communication, Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, MI, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, CanadaIn a metaphor, such as language is a bridge, two distinct concepts known as the topic (i.e., language) and vehicle (i.e., bridge) are juxtaposed to produce figurative meaning. Previous work demonstrated that, when creating metaphors, participants choose vehicles that are concrete, rather than abstract, and are also a moderate semantic distance away from the topic. However, little is known about the semantic representations underlying metaphor production beyond topic-vehicle semantic distance and vehicle concreteness. Here, we studied the role of two semantic richness variables in metaphor production – semantic neighborhood density (SND), which measures the proximity of a word and its associations in semantic space, and body-object interaction (BOI), which reflects the ease with which a human body can motorically interact with a word’s referent. In each trial, participants were presented with an abstract topic, such as miracle, and were instructed to make an apt and comprehensible metaphor by choosing a vehicle word (e.g., lighthouse). All of the topics were abstract but half were high-SND (from dense semantic neighborhoods) and half were low-SND (from sparse semantic neighborhoods). Similarly, half of the potential vehicle words were either high or low in SND and also differed on BOI such that half were high-BOI (e.g., bicycle), whereas half were low-BOI (e.g., rainbow). We observed a three-way interaction such that participants selected low-BOI, rather than high-BOI, vehicle words when topics or vehicles were high-SND. We interpret this finding to suggest that participants attempt to reduce the overall semantic richness of their created metaphors.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1216561/fullmetaphorembodied cognitionsemantic richnessbody object interactionsemantic neighborhood density |
| spellingShingle | Hamad Al-Azary Hamad Al-Azary Albert N. Katz On choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2.0: the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body-object interaction on metaphor production Frontiers in Psychology metaphor embodied cognition semantic richness body object interaction semantic neighborhood density |
| title | On choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2.0: the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body-object interaction on metaphor production |
| title_full | On choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2.0: the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body-object interaction on metaphor production |
| title_fullStr | On choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2.0: the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body-object interaction on metaphor production |
| title_full_unstemmed | On choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2.0: the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body-object interaction on metaphor production |
| title_short | On choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2.0: the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body-object interaction on metaphor production |
| title_sort | on choosing the vehicles of metaphors 2 0 the interactive effects of semantic neighborhood density and body object interaction on metaphor production |
| topic | metaphor embodied cognition semantic richness body object interaction semantic neighborhood density |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1216561/full |
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