An Investigation Into Some Differences Between Literal and Metaphorical Comparison Statements
Vondruska, Richard J.
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/66021
Description
Title
An Investigation Into Some Differences Between Literal and Metaphorical Comparison Statements
Author(s)
Vondruska, Richard J.
Issue Date
1980
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Educational Psychology
Language
eng
Abstract
Four experiments involving college students were conducted to test the hypothesis that the matching attributes in metaphorical comparisons are more salient for the second term in the comparison than the first term, but equally salient in literal comparisons. Two paradigms were employed in this research. The first paradigm was a modified "cloze" procedure in which subjects were asked to provide either a missing first term or a missing second term in the context of three matching attributes for twenty metaphorical comparisons. It was found that the hypothesis was supported when subjects generated a metaphorical comparison which expressed essentially the same idea as the "target comparison" from which the matching attributes were obtained. When subjects were asked to provide a term which generated a literal comparison, this pattern of results was not obtained. The second paradigm was a forced-choice task in which subjects were asked to select either the first or second term of both literal and metaphorical comparisons with regard to the importance of the matching attributes to that term. In a follow-up task subjects were asked to make a judgment concerning the importance of the attributes. This paradigm provided no support for the hypothesis. It was concluded that although both paradigms could be improved for further research, some evidence had been obtained in support of the notion of salience imbalance in metaphorical comparisons. It was further observed that the data might be compatible with the notion that there is a difference with respect to the nature of the matching attributes in literal and metaphorical comparisons.
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