Khatin-Zadeh Omid
School of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2024 Dec;58(4):1-12. doi: 10.1007/s12124-024-09838-8. Epub 2024 Apr 17.
This article discusses the role of inhibition as a component of executive functions in metaphorical embodiment of concepts and explains some incongruent evidence for metaphorical embodiment. Some past works have explained the incongruent evidence for metaphorical embodiment of concepts on the basis of conventionality/novelty of metaphors. Based on theories of embodiment, when a word that refers to an object is used in its literal sense, all sensorimotor networks that are involved in perceiving the object are activated, and sensorimotor features of the object are embodied. However, when the same word is used in a metaphorical sense as the base of a metaphor, only a single salient semantic feature that defines the metaphorical meaning of the word is embodied. The other semantic features, which are metaphorically irrelevant, are inhibited during metaphor comprehension. The activation/embodiment of the salient metaphorically-relevant feature and the inhibition of metaphorically-irrelevant features are dependent on base-target relationship, contextual information, and conventionality/novelty of metaphorical expression. Therefore, meaning of a single term can be metaphorically embodied in a variety of ways in different situations and in different metaphorical expressions. It is suggested that this can be one reason for non-congruency of evidence for metaphorical embodiment of concepts.
本文讨论了抑制作为执行功能的一个组成部分在概念隐喻性具身化中的作用，并解释了一些关于隐喻性具身化的不一致证据。过去的一些研究基于隐喻的常规性/新颖性来解释概念隐喻性具身化的不一致证据。基于具身化理论，当一个指代物体的词按其字面意义使用时，所有参与感知该物体的感觉运动网络都会被激活，物体的感觉运动特征得以具身化。然而，当同一个词作为隐喻的基础以隐喻意义使用时，只有一个定义该词隐喻意义的显著语义特征会被具身化。其他与隐喻无关的语义特征在隐喻理解过程中会被抑制。显著的隐喻相关特征的激活/具身化以及隐喻无关特征的抑制取决于基础-目标关系、语境信息和隐喻表达的常规性/新颖性。因此，在不同情境和不同隐喻表达中，单个术语的意义可以通过多种方式进行隐喻性具身化。有人认为，这可能是概念隐喻性具身化证据不一致的一个原因。
