Psychological Reality And Mapping Characteristics Of Vertical Spatial Metaphor Of Power Verbs

Under the framework of conceptual metaphor theory and perceptual symbol theory,it has been found that understanding language is a process of mental simulation,which is closely related to the sensorimotor system of the brain.Conceptual metaphor theory holds that metaphor is a kind of cognition.Metaphor mapping is used to illustrate the relationship between two conceptual domains,that is,the process of using familiar and specific concepts of the original domain(such as size and height)to represent another unfamiliar and abstract concept of the target domain(such as morality and power).The theory of perceptual symbols indicates that language is stored in the brain in the form of perceptual symbols,and perceptual symbols represent things in the mind instead of abstract symbols.A large number of experimental results have also verified the above views.The concept of power has noun form and verb form.The current research mainly examines the vertical spatial metaphorical representation and characteristics of power nouns(such as boss and employee),and finds a significant vertical spatial metaphorical effect.However,the research on metaphorical representation of power verbs(such as command and request)and vertical space is relatively lacking.However,the research on metaphorical representation of power verbs in vertical space not only helps to expand the research field of metaphorical cognition,but also has important significance for the verification and improvement of relevant theories of metaphorical cognition.This study uses the reacting-time technique to explore the psychological reality and mapping characteristics of the vertical spatial metaphor of power verbs through four sub-experiments in two studies,and makes clear the role of semantic processing in metaphor.Experiments 1a and 1b examined the influence of semantic activation on the psychological reality of vertical spatial metaphors of power verbs in conscious and subconscious states respectively.Experiment 2a and experiment 2b examined the mapping from the power target domain to the upper and lower source domain and the mapping from the upper and lower source domain to the power target domain respectively to determine the mapping direction of the vertical spatial metaphor of the power verb.The experimental results show that:(1)power verbs and vertical spatial associations exist at the cognitive level.The metaphorical representation of power verbs in vertical space is psychologically realistic,and the semantic activation of power verbs is the necessary condition to realize the psychological realism of power concepts in vertical spatial metaphor.(2)The vertical spatial metaphorical representation of power verbs is bidirectional.There is not only a mapping from the power target domain to the upper and lower source domain,but also a mapping from the upper and lower source domain to the power target domain.(3)The metaphorical bidirectivity of power verbs and vertical space is different in intensity.The mapping from the power target domain to the upper and lower source domain is a complete consistency mapping:high power is mapped to the top and low power is mapped to the bottom.The mapping from the upper and lower source domain to the power target domain is not completely consistent: it is only shown as the mapping from the upper to the high power.(4)The activation of semantic processing and sensorimotor simulation systems in the metaphorical understanding of power verbs may be regulated by experimental tasks.Metaphorical effect was not significant in the task of shallow semantic activation.Metaphorical effect was shown in the task of explicit semantic activation.This study draws the following conclusions: power verbs have significant psychological reality of metaphorical representation in vertical space,their mapping is bidirectional,and semantic activation is the prerequisite for power verbs to produce metaphorical effects in vertical space.