A Study Of The Cognitive Comprehension Of Chinese Metaphors/Similes Under Aptness And Conventionality

According to categorization model,metaphors are processed as categorical forms,with the vehicle term serving as a name for superordinate category to which the topic is assigned,and metaphorical interpretation will be obtained through interacting roles that topic and vehicle play in the comprehension process.Similes are processed as comparison forms,with literal referents of the vehicle as their interpretations.The categorization model holds that aptness plays the key role in metaphor comprehension.In contrast,the career of metaphor model takes conventionality as the determining factor in metaphor comprehension.Specifically,novel metaphors initially start their“career” as similes,as they become conventionalized with repeated uses,they could be processed as categorical forms.In brief,by the career of metaphor model,novel metaphors are processed as comparison forms while conventionalized metaphors are processed as categorical forms.Both of the two models are backed up by different empirical studies.However,for one part,most studies were conducted in the condition of English.For the other part,most studies usually only measured one of the two factors.They usually ignored the confounding effect of aptness or conventionality,thus not convincing enough.Therefore,the present study aims to explore comprehension model of metaphors and similes in the condition of Chinese with both aptness and conventionality considered.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the comprehension model of Chinese metaphors and similes? The categorization model or the career of metaphor model?(2)How do aptness and conventionality influence the comprehension of metaphors and similes?(3)What roles do aptness and conventionality play in metaphor-simile preference? Which one works as the leading factor?In order to address the three questions,sufficient preparations were done for selecting research materials and two experiments were designed.As for the selection of research materials,131 participants in total were assigned for three questionnaires,that is,aptness ratings questionnaire,conventional property generation questionnaire and conventionality ratings questionnaire.Two levels of aptness and conventionality matched up to form four types of figurative sentences(high conventionality-high aptness,high conventionality-low aptness,low conventionality-high aptness and low conventionality-low aptness).Experiment one consists of two tasks,including the comprehension task of metaphors and similes and comprehensibility ratings task of metaphors and similes.The response time and comprehensibility ratings were measured by computer.Experiment two is metaphor-simile preference task,with participants rating which form they prefer.79 participants were involved for both experiment one and two,and a break is allowed in the middle of the experiment.Collected data were analyzed by independent-samples t-test,repeated measure ANOVA,MANOVA and simple effect test.The study revealed that:(1)Chinese metaphors and similes were comprehended within categorization model;(2)It is aptness,but not conventionality,plays the key role in metaphor comprehension and metaphor-simile preference;(3)As for reaction time,apt tropes were processed far more quickly than inapt tropes.Comprehension times of conventional tropes and novel tropes were approximately equal.Likewise,comprehension times of conventional metaphors and similes were nonsignificant.The same was true with novel similes and metaphors;(4)As for comprehensibility,apt tropes were far more comprehensible than inapt tropes.Conventional tropes and novel tropes were equally comprehensible.Similarly,conventional metaphors and similes were nonsignificant in the ease of comprehension.The same went to novel similes and metaphors;(5)As for the preference for metaphor or simile forms,apt tropes were privileged in metaphor forms while inapt tropes were preferred as simile forms.Novel apt tropes were preferred as metaphor forms.The present study verified the categorization model in the condition of Chinese,providing empirical evidence for comprehension model of Chinese metaphors and similes,as well as experiment paradigm for future researches.