Algorithms as Structural Metaphors: Reflections on the Digital-Cultural Feedback Loop

Leonardo ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-177
Author(s):  
Romy Achituv

The author argues that the application of digital algorithmic structures to analog media may illuminate hidden values and perceptions inherent in the digital technologies themselves. The paper sets out the understanding of metaphor in contemporary cognitive linguistics, in which metaphor is perceived as a conceptual device that creates meaning through cross-domain mapping—that is, partially mapping (projecting) one conceptual domain onto another. While the projected domain is intended to elucidate the target domain, the author argues that metaphor itself is self-reflexive—drawing attention to characteristics of the projected domain.

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihailo Antović

Abstract This paper initiates a theory of musical semantics based on the notions of cross-domain mapping from cognitive linguistics and ground from the philosophy of language. The central claim is that listeners construct musical meaning on the basis of neither free associations nor fixed clues inherent to the musical structure. Rather, the process is grounded in a hierarchical system of six contextual constraints. On level one, the first glimpse of meaning emerges from direct physiological reactions, as when a segment of music is described as “tense.” On level two, image-schematic structure begins to be constructed, e. g., a “hopping” staccato. Level three is connotational, ascribing emotional qualities to the music, while on level four, the meaning becomes conceptual, relating the music to rich imagery, e. g., “a medieval battle.” On level five, conceptual meaning interacts with an elaborated cultural context, motivating rich descriptions at the intersection of two or more conceptual domains, e. g., when the “battle” is replaced by “gods coming down from Olympus.” Level six hosts associations grounded in personal experience. To support the proposal, a representative set of verbal descriptions from a recent experimental study on musical meaning is analyzed, showing both the emergence of new conceptual content and the hierarchical nature of grounding. In doing so, the contribution attempts to formally capture the old paradox of musical semantics: that music is full of meaning, yet that this meaning is highly underspecified, manifested in a potential rather than definite form.


ExELL ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-101
Author(s):  
Jasmina Hanić ◽  
Tanja Pavlović ◽  
Alma Jahić

Abstract The paper explores the existence of cognitive linguistics principles in translation of emotion-related metaphorical expressions. Cognitive linguists (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1987) define metaphor as a mechanism used for understanding one conceptual domain, target domain, in terms of another conceptual domain, source domain, through sets of correspondences between these two domains. They also claim that metaphor is omnipresent in ordinary discourse. Cognitive linguists, however, also realized that certain metaphors can be recognized and identified in different languages and cultures whereas some are language- and culture-specific. This paper focuses on similarities and variations in metaphors which have recently become popular within the discipline of Translation Studies. Transferring and translating metaphors from one language to another can represent a challenge for translators due to a multi-faceted process of translation including both linguistic and non-linguistic elements. A number of methods and procedures have been developed to overcome potential difficulties in translating metaphorical expressions, with the most frequent ones being substitution, paraphrase, or deletion. The analysis shows the transformation of metaphorical expressions from one language into another and the procedures involving underlying conceptual metaphors, native speaker competence, and the influence of the source language.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junyin Zhang ◽  
Yongxin Ge ◽  
Xinqian Gu ◽  
Boyu Hua ◽  
Tao Xiang
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Xitao Fu

<p>The typical view considers metonymy as an intra-domain mapping which involves the source providing mental access to the target within the domain, with PART-WHOLE as the prototypical relation. This commonly held view of metonymy in Cognitive Linguistics pays attention to what happens after the domain, or rather, the WHOLE, has been established. How the WHOLE is formed seems to be missing. Based on the research results of cognitive science, especially in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, and neuroscience, metonymy is tentatively argued to be an innate cognitive mechanism involving PART-WHOLE FORMING, PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING processes. The PART-WHOLE FORMING process establishes the WHOLE from the PART: It picks up some prominent element(s) in an interactive process to form a patterned experience, and the PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING process relates PART to PART, relating PART to the WHOLE and vice versa. The PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING process is made possible by the PART-WHOLE FORMING process. Metonymic operations usually precede metaphoric operation. Metaphor is essentially grounded on metonymy. Metonymy as a cognitive mechanism is most noticeably realized in language. It operates in various aspects of language and language use. The experience pattern (i.e. the WHOLE) formulated through the PART-WHOLE FORMING process is found to underpin the process of grammaticalization, the development of meaning prototype, and to motivate such daily language use as football nicknaming and to bring in certain cognitive and communicative functions. In the light of this view of metonymy, grammaticalization is considered from the conceptual perspective as a process from the general/global to the specific/local, or from focus on one specific aspect to focus on another particular aspect within the global WHOLE, rather than the usually held concrete-to-abstract process. This also applies to word meaning prototypes. Word meaning develops due to the dynamic of meaning prototypes. When considered from the conceptual perspective, meaning prototypes generally develop from the general/global to the specific/local with the change and specification of contextual situations. The cognitive analysis of football nicknames also suggests that metonymy is overwhelming and provides the requisite basis for metaphor. The PART-WHOLE FORMING and the PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING processes of metonymy as an inherent cognitive mechanism often interact in the mind, which is evidenced in language and may be best illustrated through analysis of interactive communication in general, and dialogic discourse in particular. Metonymy in interaction is embodied in its functions and operations in dialogue and its contribution to the dialogue as a discourse entity. Metonymy operates in dialogic discourse in various patterns of GENERAL-SPECIFIC scheme. It operates in the development of dialogue and helps structure the dialogic discourse, making it a coherent discourse entity; it makes meaning out of the local utterance and relates it to the whole dialogue; it underlies the decision-making process, helping make a final decision among alternatives. It also motivates the problem-solving process, helping formulate and organise replies to the questions posed by the counterpart in dialogic discourse, and facilitating the solution of daily problems.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
Carla Ovejas Ramírez

This article discusses hyperbolic markers in modeling hyperbole from the perspective of a scenario-based account of language use within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. In this view, hyperbole is seen as a mapping across two conceptual domains (Peña y Ruiz de Mendoza, 2017), a source domain, here relabeled as the magnified scenario, which contains a hypothetical unrealistic situation based on exaggeration, and a target domain or observable scenario which depicts the real situation addressed by the hyperbolic expression. Since the hypothetical scenario is a magnified version of the observable scenario, the mapping contains source-target matches in varying degrees of resemblance. Within this theoretical context, the article explores resources available to speakers for the construction of magnified scenarios leading to hyperbolic interpretation. Among such resources, we find hyperbole markers and the setting up of domains of reference. Finally, the article also discusses hyperbole blockers, which cancel out the activity of the other hyperbolic meaning construction mechanisms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 427
Author(s):  
Hongyan Hua

Vocabulary plays an essential role in foreign language learning, and it is the same with Chinese students’ learning English. However, in China traditional ways of English vocabulary learning focuses on the recitation and analysis of the sound, spelling and meaning of English words without considering their cognitive motivations and thus makes understanding and memorization of them invalid and boring, which directly affects Chinese students’ English level of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Therefore, some effective methods of English vocabulary learning must be found so as to arouse students’ interests and facilitate their learning of English words. Conceptual metaphor theory reveals that metaphor is not only a universal cognitive phenomenon but also a cognitive tool of human beings, which can shed some lights onto English words learning, a kind of cognitive activity. Conceptual metaphor theory also depicts cross-domain mapping as its working mechanism by saying that cross-domain mapping is a kind of thinking link from source domain to target domain. And this thinking link is of great help to the memorizing processes of words and understanding of words’ connotation and can make English vocabulary learning systematic and flexible. This paper explores the application of conceptual metaphor theory into college English vocabulary learning from three aspects, namely, polysemous words, idiomatic expressions and word connections, aiming at cultivating students’ metaphorical awareness and improving their metaphorical competence in vocabulary learning.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1994
Author(s):  
Ping Li ◽  
Zhiwei Ni ◽  
Xuhui Zhu ◽  
Juan Song ◽  
Wenying Wu

Domain adaptation manages to learn a robust classifier for target domain, using the source domain, but they often follow different distributions. To bridge distribution shift between the two domains, most of previous works aim to align their feature distributions through feature transformation, of which optimal transport for domain adaptation has attract researchers’ interest, as it can exploit the local information of the two domains in the process of mapping the source instances to the target ones by minimizing Wasserstein distance between their feature distributions. However, it may weaken the feature discriminability of source domain, thus degrade domain adaptation performance. To address this problem, this paper proposes a two-stage feature-based adaptation approach, referred to as optimal transport with dimensionality reduction (OTDR). In the first stage, we apply the dimensionality reduction with intradomain variant maximization but source intraclass compactness minimization, to separate data samples as much as possible and enhance the feature discriminability of the source domain. In the second stage, we leverage optimal transport-based technique to preserve the local information of the two domains. Notably, the desirable properties in the first stage can mitigate the degradation of feature discriminability of the source domain in the second stage. Extensive experiments on several cross-domain image datasets validate that OTDR is superior to its competitors in classification accuracy.


Author(s):  
Kwansuk Oh ◽  
Jong Wook Lim ◽  
Seongwon Cho ◽  
Junyeol Ryu ◽  
Yoo S. Hong

AbstractVariety management is a cross-domain issue in product family design. In the real field, the relationships across the domains are so complex for most of the existing product families that they cannot be easily identified without proper reference architecture. This reference architecture should provide the cross- domain mapping mechanisms in an explicit manner and be able to identify the proper units for management. From this perspective of cross-domain framework, this paper introduces development architecture (DA) to describe the relationships between elements in market, design, and production domains and to give insights for the cross-domain variety management in the product development stage. DA has three parts: (1) the arrangement of elements in each domain, (2) the mapping between elements, and (3) the identification of management sets and key interfaces which are the proper units for variety management. The proposed development architecture framework is applied to the case of front chassis family of modules of an automobile.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-206
Author(s):  
Kim Ebensgaard Jensen

The X itself is a nominal construction that has not received much attention within cognitive linguistics despite it having a quite interesting function, as it serves to select a core part in a partonomy and thus specify lexical relations within a text. Apart from being mentioned in passing in Croft & Cruse (2004), one of the few treatments of this construction in cognitive linguistics is Jensen (2014) who builds on the comments in Croft & Cruse (2004) and proposes a hypothesis pertaining to the cognitive and discursive function of the construction. However, that hypothesis does not take into account an important aspect of the reality of language — namely, variation. This article investigates, within the framework of usage-based construction grammar, the X itself in the Open American National Corpus (OANC) to see whether the construction displays variation across the nine domains that the data in OANC are divided into. Applying quantitative techniques, including lexical diversity measures and multidimensional scaling, this article explores aspects of the discursive behavior of the X itself across these domains and addresses the extent to which the construction interacts with the registers associated with the domains. Focusing on use-based varieties (McArthur 1992, see also Quirk 1989 and Halliday et al. 1964: 77), the present article argues that the X itself is not a constructional monolith, but that it is characterized by register-sensitive functional variation and that its core selection function very likely serves a information-structural discourse-pragmatic purpose.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1716
Author(s):  
Reham Adayel ◽  
Yakoub Bazi ◽  
Haikel Alhichri ◽  
Naif Alajlan

Most of the existing domain adaptation (DA) methods proposed in the context of remote sensing imagery assume the presence of the same land-cover classes in the source and target domains. Yet, this assumption is not always realistic in practice as the target domain may contain additional classes unknown to the source leading to the so-called open set DA. Under this challenging setting, the problem turns to reducing the distribution discrepancy between the shared classes in both domains besides the detection of the unknown class samples in the target domain. To deal with the openset problem, we propose an approach based on adversarial learning and pareto-based ranking. In particular, the method leverages the distribution discrepancy between the source and target domains using min-max entropy optimization. During the alignment process, it identifies candidate samples of the unknown class from the target domain through a pareto-based ranking scheme that uses ambiguity criteria based on entropy and the distance to source class prototype. Promising results using two cross-domain datasets that consist of very high resolution and extremely high resolution images, show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


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