EFL learners’ awareness of metonymy–metaphor continuum in figurative expressions

Abstract

Most studies about figurative language learning focus on metaphor rather than metonymy; however, the interactions of metonymy and metaphor are so intricate that the boundary forms not a dichotomy but a continuum. Such a continuum and its influences on figurative language learning have not been studied in depth. The present study investigates EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners' responses to different metonymic and metaphoric expressions. Twenty-eight Taiwanese EFL learners participated in the study, which asked them to rate 40 sentences based on their certainty of figurative language use. The results show that EFL learners were capable of distinguishing between sentences with and without figurative expressions, and were more certain in judging metaphoric expressions than metonymic ones. Moreover, they found it easier to recognise expressions of the emotion anger than those of other topics. Their performances indicate that EFL learners are able to use their shared experiences to identify figurative language uses. This study suggests that it may be beneficial to integrate ideas of conceptual metonymy and metaphor to raise learners' awareness of abstract but universal concepts involved in figurative expressions.

The Learner’ Levels of Collocation Knowledge and Idiomatic Expressions: Exploring the Relationship of Acquisition of Two Items of Phraseology

“…teaching idioms (e.g. Conklin & Schmitt, 2008;Cieślicka, 2006;Underwood, Schmitt & Galpin, 2004;Boers, 2000;Chen & Lai, 2013) With respect to learning formulaic sequences, idiomatic expressions have been controversial and challenging that even highly L2 learners avoid using non-compositional idioms (Grant & Bauer, 2004;Siyanova & Schmitt, 2007). Grant and Bauer (2004, p. 50) conclude that "understanding figurative language involves taking a compositional untruth and extracting probable truth from it by an act of pragmatic reinterpretation", suggesting that interpreting the meanings of non-compositional idioms involve both linguistic competence and The Learner' Levels of Collocation Knowledge and Idiomatic Expressions: Exploring the Relationship of Acquisition of Two Items of Phraseology 41 pragmatic competence.…”

“…The author reported that metaphoric awareness is enhanced to interpret figurative usages of expressions and the results supported pedagogical approach to raise awareness among learners in the identification of metaphoric themes. Some empirical evidence adopting the cognitive approach was spotted by (Chen & Lai, 2013) who present a study with the focus on the role of conceptual metaphor with Taiwanese EFL learners at college level. Due to the lack of massive amount of exposure to the target language, Chen and Lai (2013, p.18) concluded that using conceptual metaphors for a typical EFL context is "dependable clues in comprehending and learning idiomatic expressions".…”

Does Embodiment of Verbs Influence Predicate Metaphor Processing in a Second Language? Evidence From Picture Priming

“…Thus, untangling how L2 learners process L2 metaphors could have important insights for those trying to teach a second language (Littlemore, 2009 , 2019 ). There has been a great body of literature exploring relationships between metaphors processing and second language learning in terms of conceptual metaphor theory (Yasuda, 2010 ; Lu and Sun, 2017 ), metaphorical competence (Danesi, 1993 ; Littlemore and Low, 2006 ), metaphor awareness (Guo, 2007 ; Chen and Lai, 2012 ; Boers, 2013 ), imagery (Ifantidou and Hatzidaki, 2019 ) and individual differences (Johnson and Rosano, 1993 ; Wegner et al, 2020 ). Previous ERPs studies on bilingual metaphor processing found neural similarities and difference in metaphor processing between L1 and L2 (Dong, 2013 ; Park and Chung, 2013 ; Xue et al, 2014 ; Liu, 2016 ; Jankowiak et al, 2017 , 2021 ; Wang, 2018 ).…”

Translating Metaphtonymy: Exploring Trainee Translators' Translation Approaches and Underlying Factors

“…Since the 1980s, metonymy and metaphor have been widely accepted as different ways of thinking rather than as mere stylistic devices (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980 ; Panther and Radden, 1999 ; Dirven, 2003 ; Littlemore, 2019 ) and have received considerable attention within the studies across languages and cultures (Buchowski, 1996 ; Sakuragi and Fuller, 2003 ; Chen and Lai, 2012 ). As two modes of conceptualizing the world, they often interact with each other, prompting Goossens ( 1990 ) to offer the neologism: metaphtonymy.…”