Activating the Right Hemisphere Through Left-Hand Muscle Contraction Improves Novel Metaphor Comprehension

The neurotypical brain is characterized by left hemisphere lateralization for most language processing. However, the right hemisphere plays a crucial part when it is required to bring together seemingly unrelated concepts into meaningful expressions, such as in the case of novel metaphors (unfamiliar figurative expressions). The aim of the current study was to test whether it is possible to enhance novel metaphor comprehension through an easy, efficient, and non-invasive method – intentional contraction of the left hand’s muscles, to activate the motor and sensory areas in the contralateral hemisphere. One hundred eighteen neurotypical participants were asked to perform a semantic judgment task involving two-word expressions of four types: literal, conventional metaphors, novel metaphors, or unrelated, while squeezing a rubber ball with their right hand, left hand, or not at all. Results demonstrated that left-hand contraction improved novel metaphor comprehension, as participants were more accurate and quicker in judging them to be meaningful. The findings of the present work provide a simple and efficient method for boosting right hemisphere activation, which can be used to improve metaphoric language comprehension. This method can aid several populations in which right hemisphere function is not fully established, and who struggle with processing figurative language, such as adolescents and individuals on the autistic spectrum.

An initial investigation of the role of death concerns in evaluations of metaphoric language about God

Past research suggests that death pushes some individuals to strongly promote religious worldviews. The current work explores the role of conceptual metaphor in this process. Past research shows that metaphors can provide meaning and certainty, suggesting that death may therefore cause people to be more attracted to epistemically beneficial metaphoric descriptions of God. In three studies, we test this possibility against competing alternatives suggesting that death concerns may cause more selective metaphor preferences. Using both correlational (Study 1 and pre-registered replication) and experimental (Study 2) methods, we find that death concern is generally associated with embracing metaphors about God.

Emerging Trends in Metaphoric Images of Curriculum Reform Implementation in Schools: A Critical Literature Review

Curriculum reform is often difficult to conceive, disseminate, and implement, resulting in the use of metaphors to make sense of how changes initiated at national level are enacted in schools. This theoretical paper, which employs Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA), constructs an account of emerging trends in metaphoric language to unlock the complexity of reform implementation. A deductive critical review of literature was adopted as the qualitative design to glean insights into how metaphors have been used to shape mental images of curriculum reform across time and space. Findings indicated converging and diverging trends in metaphoric semantics. While some studies have equated curriculum change to a battlefield and a ghost of control, others have likened reform implementation to driving through the fog or wearing a donated gown of the wrong size. School reform has also been portrayed as a journey, a jigsaw puzzle, and a gardening project demanding meticulous planning and concentration. The unique contribution of this research is the clustering of reform metaphors into a three-tiered spectrum of pessimism, ambiguity, and optimism, thereby extending insights into the dynamics of curriculum enactment. Strategic implementation is recommended so that curriculum reform may be couched in metaphors of hope instead of anger and confusion.

The Impact of Electronic Communication and the Net Language on the Language Use and Linguistic Expressions of Today’s Youth in Hungary / Utjecaj elektroničke komunikacije i internetskoga jezika na uporabu jezika i jezični izričaj današnje mladeži

The present study retraces how the prestige of written language conventions impacts internet-based communication and how this linguistic subculture influences the use, development and evolution of language. The author’s basic premise is the “linguistic frugality” as a definitive characteristic of the Internet, resulting in the formation of a written slang. The authors shed light at the respective forms used in internet communication. The study explores the main manifestations of the abovementioned slang and investigates idiosyncratic orthographic solutions dominating the World Wide Web. Due to the paralinguistic deficiencies of the written text primarily manifested in the lack of a metalanguage or mimicry, the emotional content of our messages is expressed in the form of smile symbols. Consequently, the phonetic equivalents of the written image tend to dominate texts exhanged via e-mail or chat lines. The increasing domination of the net language by images results in visible semiotic and grammatic consequences. Thus a new metaphoric language is being born as established textual forms start to become obsolete. However, one basic question remains: Will the new digital communication options lead to linguistic vitality, linguistic diversity and creative language use, or the net language will have a negative impact on the development of language and result in overall valueloss? In sum, the authors explore the impact of net language or internet-basedcommunication on the language use and linguistic expressions of today’s youth.Key words: creativity; net language; language norms; universal language. - U ovom istraživannju ispituje se način na koji prestiž konvencija pisanogajezika oblikuje internetsku komunikaciju i utjecaj novonastale jezične potkulturena korištenje i evoluciju jezika. Polazeći od premise “lingvističke štedljivosti” -neosporne osobine interneta koja dovodi do formiranja pisanoga slenga, autoriproučavaju povezane oblike koji se upotrebljavaju u internetskoj komunikaciji,glavne pojave spomenutoga slenga i idiosinkratična pravopisna rješenja kojadominiraju internetom. Zbog paralingvističke manjkavosti pisanoga teksta,prvenstveno izostanka metajezika i mimike, emocionalni sadržaj naših porukaizražava se simbolom osmijeha. Na taj način svakodnevno svjedočimo dominacijifonetskih ekvivalenata pisanih slika tekstovima koji se razmjenjuju putem e-porukaili u pričaonicama (chatovima). Sve veća dominacija slika jezikom interneta imavidljive semiotičke i gramatičke posljedice, vodi zastarijevanju uspostavljenihtekstualnih oblika i daje uzlet novom metaforičkom jeziku. Ipak, osnovno pitanjeostaje: vode li nove digitalno-komunikacijske mogućnosti jezičnoj vitalnosti,raznolikosti i kreativnoj upotrebi jezika ili jezik interneta ima negativan učinakna razvoj jezika i vodi sveopćem obezvrjeđivanju? Zaključno, autori istražujuučinak internetskoga jezika ili komunikacije na internetu na upotrebu jezika ijezični izričaj današnje mladeži.Ključne riječi: jezik interneta; jezične norme; kreativnost; univerzalni jezik.

CHINESE NATIONAL PICTURE NIANHUA – A PHENOMENON OF CULTURE OF THE XX CENTURE

Chinese folk painting nianhua (literal translation, “New Year’s picture”) is a kind of Chinese graphic art, which received a wide popularity in the late XIX – early XX centuries. On the eve of the New Year in China everywhere decorated interiors of living rooms with colorful pictures containing New Year’s greetings, they were pasted on windows, doors, gates. Decorative pictures had a utilitarian and cultic purpose: images of mythological characters and gods symbolized happiness, longevity, prosperity, protected from disasters and misfortunes. At the beginning of the 20th century, nianhua was produced in the woodcutting shops in a woodcut way, since the middle of the 20th century have been used modern technologies, including printing. New Year’s paintings significantly different from national academic painting. The philosophical concept of New Year’s painting was to reflect the spiritual life of the people, moral values, and artistic tastes. The images were built on the basis of folklore motifs, a rhythmic combination of bright colors created a decorative effect, so nianhua is a valuable material that demonstrates the aesthetic representations of the Chinese people, their folk traditions and symbols. The themes of the New Year’s paintings are extremely diverse and includes the following: scenes from classical literature, religious and symbolic and benevolent drawings, genre art painting, calendars depicting 12 cyclic signs of animals, agricultural calendars and advertising pictures. During the history of its existence, the New Year’s picture plays an important political and ideological role. Traditional paintings propagated the foundations of the orthodox Confucian ideology about social and ethical relationships, including hierarchy in the family and society: “Wu lun – the five principles of relationships”, “Xiao – filial piety”, “Ren – patience”. In the second half of the XX century, the New Year's picture is developing as an agitational poster. Under the influence of European painting and modern political processes in Chinese society, artists began to use a new artistic method - revolutionary realism on purpose to illuminate sociopolitical events, propagandize government tasks and resolutions. The basic principles of painting the New Year’s picture are the decorative character (the brightness of colors, the rhythmic combination of color spots), the hyperbolism and idealization of images, the folklore basis of plots and the conventional symbolic-metaphoric language.

Information Processing Model in Consumer Behaviors in Health Communication

In some private television channels in Turkey, herbal cream advertisements for joint diseases are televised. These ads, which are shown for a few minutes on the screens, are generally directed towards the elderly who complain of joint pain and related creams are claimed to be effective in passing many pains irrespective of the variety. In these ads, singers and elderly who complain of joint pain also show up and tell the effects of creams. The advertisements are constructed in a metaphoric language. Therefore, in this study, herbal cream advertisements for joint diseases will be examined through the advertisement of 3,000-year-old Miracle Cream, Miracle Cream of East Medicine, and Miracle Cream, which are televised in the middle of 2017. In this ethnographic study, how the relevant advertisements are coded, organized, and nurtured for the buyers who complain of joint pain will be investigated.

Reflections on the Magic of Artistic Discourse

The discovery of the functional asymmetry of the brain's hemispheres is one of the greatest achievements in the field of psychology in late 20th century. In this context, artistic perception is considered in "Reflections on the Magic of Artistic Discourse". This essay accords particular attention to the interrelationship and antinomy of logical (left hemisphere) and figurative (right hemisphere) thinking. Thus, while the former posits a simplified, schematic model of reality, the latter perceives reality in all its complex polysemy and contradictoriness. It must be noted that these contradictions coexist without canceling each other out. This is the foundation of almost all literary fiction with its ambivalence, metaphoric language, implicitness, levels of connotation and play of meaning. It is well known that a thought uttered directly destroys the esthetic effect of a work of art whereas «a complicated artistic structure, created from the material of language, allows us to transmit a volume of information too great to be transmitted by an elementary, strictly linguistic structure» (Yu. Lotman). However, this kind of information is special and cannot be broken down into categories or reduced to a binary logical or black-and-white outline. It would, therefore, not be an exaggeration to say that all the devices used in a work of art undermine left hemisphere thought, loosening intellectual control over the text's metaphoric constituents. By using a series of examples to demonstrate the manner in which an artistic text functions and takes possession of the reader's attention, feelings and will, the author draws a parallel between artistic and hypnotic impact.The discovery of the functional asymmetry of the brain's hemispheres is one of the greatest achievements in the field of psychology in late 20th century. In this context, artistic perception is considered in "Reflections on the Magic of Artistic Discourse". This essay accords particular attention to the interrelationship and antinomy of logical (left hemisphere) and figurative (right hemisphere) thinking. Thus, while the former posits a simplified, schematic model of reality, the latter perceives reality in all its complex polysemy and contradictoriness. It must be noted that these contradictions coexist without canceling each other out. This is the foundation of almost all literary fiction with its ambivalence, metaphoric language, implicitness, levels of connotation and play of meaning. It is well known that a thought uttered directly destroys the esthetic effect of a work of art whereas «a complicated artistic structure, created from the material of language, allows us to transmit a volume of information too great to be transmitted by an elementary, strictly linguistic structure» (Yu. Lotman). However, this kind of information is special and cannot be broken down into categories or reduced to a binary logical or black-and-white outline. It would, therefore, not be an exaggeration to say that all the devices used in a work of art undermine left hemisphere thought, loosening intellectual control over the text's metaphoric constituents. By using a series of examples to demonstrate the manner in which an artistic text functions and takes possession of the reader's attention, feelings and will, the author draws a parallel between artistic and hypnotic impact.

Recent applications of metaphor research in cognitive behaviour therapy

Metaphors are common in psychotherapy. The last decade has seen increasing interest in the use of metaphor in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), with attention to client metaphors being asserted as a way of enhancing CBT. However, prior to this current research there was very little research on the use of metaphor in CBT sessions, and no studies have examined how to train therapists in this skill. This article discusses four studies that provide a preliminary empirical basis for the exploration of metaphors in CBT. The first study evaluated the reliability and utility of an approach to metaphor identification. The second study explored how clients and therapists co-construct metaphors, contributing to development of a shared language in early therapy sessions and identified a range of responses to each other’s metaphors. The third study explored the effect of training CBT therapists to intentionally bring client metaphors into case conceptualisations in terms of building therapeutic alliance and collaboration, along with an exploration of preference for metaphoric language. The fourth study explored the impact of the metaphor training on therapist confidence, awareness and use of metaphors, based on therapist self-report ratings and reflections on their ongoing application of learning over a three month period. These findings suggest that it is possibly to conduct empirical research on metaphor in CBT, with metaphor having potential as an important therapy process1 variable.