ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to summarize some of my research results in the field of figurative language obtained in intensive cooperation with my colleague Elisabeth Piirainen. The idea to publish a linguistically oriented article in a psychological journal may be somewhat surprising and requires additional explanation. The starting point of our analysis of figurative language is our confidence that this part of the language system cannot be described without addressing issues outside linguistics proper, i.e., without the inclusion of extralinguistic knowledge. In this sense, figurative language is not a purely linguistic phenomenon; it includes elements of culture-based knowledge and has intersection points with all areas of knowledge interested in culture. To be able to study any properties of conventional figurative language, we need to answer at least two questions. First, what are the criteria of figurativeness, i.e., how can we select figurative expressions from the set of all units of language? Second, how to distinguish conventional figurative units from non-conventional figurative expressions. These questions are discussed in detail in our book Figurative language: cross-cultural and cross-linguistic perspectives. Let us briefly review these issues.

摘要

本文旨在总结我与同事 Elisabeth Piirainen 密切合作在比喻语​​言领域取得的一些研究成果。在心理学期刊上发表面向语言的文章的想法可能有点令人惊讶，需要额外的解释。我们分析比喻语言的出发点是我们相信，如果不解决语言学之外的问题，即不包括语言外知识，就无法描述语言系统的这一部分。从这个意义上说，比喻语言不是一种纯粹的语言现象；它包括基于文化的知识元素，并与所有对文化感兴趣的知识领域有交集。为了能够研究传统比喻语言的任何特性，我们至少需要回答两个问题。首先，比喻性的标准是什么，即我们如何从所有语言单位的集合中选择比喻性表达？第二，如何区分传统的比喻单位和非常规的比喻表达方式。我们的书中详细讨论了这些问题比喻语言：跨文化和跨语言的观点。让我们简要回顾一下这些问题。