Relating metaphor syntax to metaphor features: An empirical approach

The study investigates the relationship between syntactic structure and metaphor features – quality, aptness, familiarity, and comprehensibility – using metaphorical expressions collected from Serbian poetry. Although metaphor research has traditionally focused on nominal forms like ‘A is B,’ this study explores more complex syntactic structures, and includes Subject + Predicate (SP), Subject + Predicate (Aux. + Nominal) (SCopP), Subject + Predicate + Object (SPO), and Subject + Predicate + Adverbial (SPA). The study involved 140 participants who rated 76 metaphorical expressions across the four metaphor features. Findings suggest that complex structures (SPO and SPA) scored higher in quality and aptness than simpler ones (SP and SCopP), challenging the predominance of nominal metaphors in research. However, simpler structures were rated as more familiar, potentially reflecting their syntactic simplicity. Comprehensibility was not influenced by syntactic complexity, likely due to participants’ linguistic proficiency. The results indicate that syntactic structure can affect metaphor perception and suggest that reliance on nominal forms in metaphor research may overlook the richness of more complex syntactic realisations. This study confirms the importance of considering syntax in metaphor research and highlights the potential for diverse syntactic patterns to enrich our understanding of metaphor processing and interpretation.

本研究以采集自塞尔维亚诗歌的隐喻表达为语料，探讨句法结构与隐喻特征——质量、贴切性、熟悉度与可理解性——之间的关联。传统隐喻研究多聚焦于“A是B”这类名词性隐喻形式，本研究则探索更为复杂的句法结构，涵盖主谓（Subject+Predicate, SP）、主谓（助动词+名词性成分, SCopP）、主谓宾（Subject+Predicate+Object, SPO）以及主谓状（Subject+Predicate+Adverbial, SPA）四种结构。本研究招募140名被试，对76条隐喻表达的四项隐喻特征进行评分。研究结果显示，复杂结构（SPO与SPA）在质量与贴切性维度的得分高于简单结构（SP与SCopP），这对现有隐喻研究中名词性隐喻占主导的局面提出了挑战。不过，简单结构被评定为更具熟悉度，这或反映了其句法简洁性。可理解性并未受句法复杂度影响，这可能与被试的语言熟练度有关。研究结果表明，句法结构能够影响隐喻感知，同时暗示隐喻研究中对名词性形式的依赖可能会忽视更复杂句法实现形式的丰富性。本研究证实了在隐喻研究中纳入句法考量的重要性，并凸显了多样化句法模式有助于深化我们对隐喻加工与解读的理解。