City University of Hong Kong Dep
Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics
Research Degree Forum
An Intrinsic Perspective on Metaphor
Presented by
Mr. CHEN Zili
PhD candidate, Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics, City University of Hong Kong
Date: 16 December 2009, Wednesday
Time: 4:30 - 5:30pm
Venue: B7603 (7/F, Blue Zone), Academic Building, CityU
Abstract
Conceptual Metaphor Theory argues that metaphor enacts cognition in a cross-domain manner, which prompts variety of research on metaphor concerning its theory and application. Those researches focus on metaphor’s behavior and functions in different environments and explore it beyond word level. The current study looks at how metaphorical mechanism operates below word level. Specifically, the paper aims to extend the research scope on metaphor by proposing an intrinsic perspective on metaphor—based on the notion that words possess a Metaphor-Making Potential. Moreover, being an initiatory context-free survey of metaphor, experiments with English verbs under the framework of WordNet and SUMO ontology are designed and conducted. In order to operationalize the measurement of an English verb’s MMP, a novel domain-based algorithm is proposed along with other two conventional metrics. At last, it is observed that higher frequency verbs generally possess greater MMP; and different genres manifest different MMP values.
Speaker
Mr. CHEN Zili is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics. He is currently working on ontological computation of conceptual metaphor.
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