The Relation of Orientational Emotional Metaphor with respect to Verticality
- Thomas Williams, UWE Bristol
- Glendinning Lecture Theatre 2D67, UWE Bristol
Lakoff and Johnson (2006:15) cite a number of examples of orientational metaphors.
HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN
CONSCIOUS IS UP; UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN
HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP; SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN
This project will centre around the concept of the orientational metaphor on a vertical axis. My project aims to conduct a replication of Meier and Robinson (2004), but instead selecting words taken from real-world data, using multiple corpus sources.
In the study, participants are presented with “positive” or “negative” words, shown either at the top, middle or bottom of a computer screen. The researchers found that the position of a word and the affect of the word correlated – thus adding evidence to Lakoff and Johnson’s proposal (2003) that HAPPY IS UP, SAD IS DOWN.
Some problems are found in Meier and Robinson’s original (2004) study – in particular CRITICAL is listed as a negative word, and while examples exist of it being used negatively, the BNC frequently lists collocates of CRITICAL with THEORY, MASS, and THINKING – phrases which are not necessarily negative at all. And given the participants in this study were in fact undergraduate students, it could be suggested that they may have viewed CRITICAL in a positive light.
To test this I searched for a sample of words used in the original study into the British National Corpus, and found many had collocates to suggest that some words categorised either as positive or negative could equally be argued to suggest the opposite.
By repeating the experiment with a new set of words, and by categorising the type of word, this project may provide more of an insight not only into verticality and affect, but of verticality and the type of metaphor.
HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN
CONSCIOUS IS UP; UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN
HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP; SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN
This project will centre around the concept of the orientational metaphor on a vertical axis. My project aims to conduct a replication of Meier and Robinson (2004), but instead selecting words taken from real-world data, using multiple corpus sources.
In the study, participants are presented with “positive” or “negative” words, shown either at the top, middle or bottom of a computer screen. The researchers found that the position of a word and the affect of the word correlated – thus adding evidence to Lakoff and Johnson’s proposal (2003) that HAPPY IS UP, SAD IS DOWN.
Some problems are found in Meier and Robinson’s original (2004) study – in particular CRITICAL is listed as a negative word, and while examples exist of it being used negatively, the BNC frequently lists collocates of CRITICAL with THEORY, MASS, and THINKING – phrases which are not necessarily negative at all. And given the participants in this study were in fact undergraduate students, it could be suggested that they may have viewed CRITICAL in a positive light.
To test this I searched for a sample of words used in the original study into the British National Corpus, and found many had collocates to suggest that some words categorised either as positive or negative could equally be argued to suggest the opposite.
By repeating the experiment with a new set of words, and by categorising the type of word, this project may provide more of an insight not only into verticality and affect, but of verticality and the type of metaphor.