Adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings.

Previous metaphor studies have paid much attention to nominal metaphors and predicative metaphors, but little attention has been given to adjective metaphors. Although some studies have focused on adjective metaphors, they only examined differences in the acceptability of various types of adjective...

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Main Authors: Maki Sakamoto, Akira Utsumi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089008&type=printable
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author Maki Sakamoto
Akira Utsumi
author_facet Maki Sakamoto
Akira Utsumi
author_sort Maki Sakamoto
collection DOAJ
description Previous metaphor studies have paid much attention to nominal metaphors and predicative metaphors, but little attention has been given to adjective metaphors. Although some studies have focused on adjective metaphors, they only examined differences in the acceptability of various types of adjective metaphors. This paper explores the cognitive effects evoked by adjective metaphors. Three psychological experiments revealed that (1) adjective metaphors, especially those modified by color adjectives, tend to evoke negative effect; (2) although the meanings of metaphors are basically affected by the meanings of their vehicles, when a vehicle has a neutral meaning, negative meanings are evoked most frequently for adjective metaphors compared to nominal and predicative metaphors; (3) negative meanings evoked by adjective metaphors are related to poeticness, and poetic metaphors evoke negative meanings more easily than less poetic metaphors. Our research sheds new light on studies of the use of metaphor, which is one of the most basic human cognitive abilities.
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spelling doaj-art-e9087f86154b49879f2b0bd5124e66a32025-08-20T03:11:54ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0192e8900810.1371/journal.pone.0089008Adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings.Maki SakamotoAkira UtsumiPrevious metaphor studies have paid much attention to nominal metaphors and predicative metaphors, but little attention has been given to adjective metaphors. Although some studies have focused on adjective metaphors, they only examined differences in the acceptability of various types of adjective metaphors. This paper explores the cognitive effects evoked by adjective metaphors. Three psychological experiments revealed that (1) adjective metaphors, especially those modified by color adjectives, tend to evoke negative effect; (2) although the meanings of metaphors are basically affected by the meanings of their vehicles, when a vehicle has a neutral meaning, negative meanings are evoked most frequently for adjective metaphors compared to nominal and predicative metaphors; (3) negative meanings evoked by adjective metaphors are related to poeticness, and poetic metaphors evoke negative meanings more easily than less poetic metaphors. Our research sheds new light on studies of the use of metaphor, which is one of the most basic human cognitive abilities.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089008&type=printable
spellingShingle Maki Sakamoto
Akira Utsumi
Adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings.
PLoS ONE
title Adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings.
title_full Adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings.
title_fullStr Adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings.
title_full_unstemmed Adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings.
title_short Adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings.
title_sort adjective metaphors evoke negative meanings
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089008&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT makisakamoto adjectivemetaphorsevokenegativemeanings
AT akirautsumi adjectivemetaphorsevokenegativemeanings