Saemeh Askani; Omid Khatin Zadeh
Volume 3, Issue 4 , November 2016, , Pages 25-1
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate patterns of encoding motion events in the sentences of ‘Reading Comprehension’ sections of English textbooks that are taught in Iranian guidance schools and high schools. To achieve this objective, all sentences that described motion events were collected from ...
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This study aimed to investigate patterns of encoding motion events in the sentences of ‘Reading Comprehension’ sections of English textbooks that are taught in Iranian guidance schools and high schools. To achieve this objective, all sentences that described motion events were collected from textbooks. These sentences were examined on the basis of two factors: 1) The encoding of Figure, Manner, Path, Source, Goal, Cause, and Ground; 2) Metaphorical description of non-motion events in terms of motion events. Based on the obtained results, it was concluded that sentences of these books are the simplified versions of typical English sentences that are used to describe motion events. In other words, these sentences minimize the details of motion events and do not offer a complete picture of such events. Regarding the use of metaphors to describe non-motion events in terms of motion events, the obtained results showed that metaphors are underused in English textbooks that are taught in Iranian schools. Therefore, it is recommended that some modifications be made in these textbooks to improve the quality of teaching these aspects of language to L2 learners in Iranian high schools and guidance schools.
Sedigheh Vahdat; Omid Khatin Zadeh; Babak Yazdani Fazlabadi
Volume 2, Issue 4 , November 2015, , Pages 58-35
Abstract
Degree of aptness of the nominal metaphor X is a Y or the extent to which the metaphorical statement expresses its specific non-literal meaning and the nature of relationship between aptness and semantic features of topic (X) and vehicle (Y) is the subject that is addressed in this study. Conducting ...
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Degree of aptness of the nominal metaphor X is a Y or the extent to which the metaphorical statement expresses its specific non-literal meaning and the nature of relationship between aptness and semantic features of topic (X) and vehicle (Y) is the subject that is addressed in this study. Conducting an experiment in which 35 undergraduate students judged degree of relevancy of 10 semantic features of topic and vehicle of nominal metaphors, the researchers of this study sought to find how aptness of a metaphor is related to various meaning aspects of topic and vehicle. The instrument was a test including 20 nominal metaphors, each one followed by 10 semantic features of topic and vehicle. The participants were required to judge the degree of relevancy of each feature on the basis of a Likert scale ranging from 0 (irrelevant) to 3 (completely relevant). The obtained results suggested that several aspects of meaning might simultaneously be in operation throughout metaphor comprehension. However, these aspects are not at the same level; that is, one meaning aspect plays the dominant role, while others play a secondary role. Taking Glucksberg’s class-inclusion view of metaphor comprehension and Gentner’s structure-mapping view and based on the results obtained in the experiment, this article presents a model according to which degree of interpretability and aptness of a nominal metaphor is determined by degree of relevancy of a specific meaning aspect of vehicle.
