Pub Date : 2025-09-26DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.001
Anne Larsen
In this article, I investigate narratives about educational trajectories among contemporary Danish youth and their relation to classed positions. The article is based on interviews with students conducted after graduation from the Danish gymnasium and preceding ethnographic fieldwork among these students. In the article, I focus on narratives constructed by two students who were positioned as competent students during their time at the gymnasium and who articulate a wish to become self-educated entrepreneurs. I argue that these narrative constructions can be related to their accumulated capital and be interpreted as a way to perform privileged positions.
{"title":"Performing privilege: Narratives about self-educating","authors":"Anne Larsen","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this article, I investigate narratives about educational trajectories among contemporary Danish youth and their relation to classed positions. The article is based on interviews with students conducted after graduation from the Danish gymnasium and preceding ethnographic fieldwork among these students. In the article, I focus on narratives constructed by two students who were positioned as competent students during their time at the gymnasium and who articulate a wish to become self-educated entrepreneurs. I argue that these narrative constructions can be related to their accumulated capital and be interpreted as a way to perform privileged positions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 137-152"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-25DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.003
Pramod Rathor, Sansuma Brahma
This study analyses case marking patterns in the Jādobāti variety of Brajbhāshā, an Indo-Aryan language. Ergative marking in Jādobāti depends on perfective aspect and subject prominence. Transitive subjects in perfective aspect take ergative case, while intransitive subjects do so when prominent. Light verb transitivity also affects ergativity. Non-nominative subjects appear with experiencer interpretations, taking dative, instrumental, genitive, or locative case. Differential object marking is driven by animacy, definiteness, specificity, and prominence. In non-perfective aspects, human objects are marked obligatorily if definite, while animate objects are marked optionally. In perfective contexts, object marking reflects prominence. Topic-positioned objects may be marked for economy and interpretation.
{"title":"Typology of case-marking in Brajbhāshā","authors":"Pramod Rathor, Sansuma Brahma","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study analyses case marking patterns in the Jādobāti variety of Brajbhāshā, an Indo-Aryan language. Ergative marking in Jādobāti depends on perfective aspect and subject prominence. Transitive subjects in perfective aspect take ergative case, while intransitive subjects do so when prominent. Light verb transitivity also affects ergativity. Non-nominative subjects appear with experiencer interpretations, taking dative, instrumental, genitive, or locative case. Differential object marking is driven by animacy, definiteness, specificity, and prominence. In non-perfective aspects, human objects are marked obligatorily if definite, while animate objects are marked optionally. In perfective contexts, object marking reflects prominence. Topic-positioned objects may be marked for economy and interpretation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 120-136"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-22DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.006
Zihe Wang
Language and discourse are central to understanding anxiety disorders, yet research on Chinese-language anxiety discourse is scarce, where socio-cultural norms may shape communication. This study analyzes anxiety discourse on a Chinese online forum by employing topic modeling, topic's text contribution analysis, and corpus-assisted discourse analysis. Ten topics are identified, with “Psychotherapy,” “Health Anxieties and Medical Examinations,” and “Academic-Family Pressures” most prominent. Key findings show that users actively engage in peer support communication by normalizing anxiety and emphasizing psychotherapy. But their health anxieties are intensified by online searches and interactions with doctors. They also show distinct communication needs with family, friends, and teachers. The study highlights how discourse reflects and shapes anxiety experiences, offering insights for patients, healthcare professionals, and the public.
{"title":"“Searching on the internet guarantees you a cancer diagnosis”: An analysis of Chinese anxiety forum discourse","authors":"Zihe Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Language and discourse are central to understanding anxiety disorders, yet research on Chinese-language anxiety discourse is scarce, where socio-cultural norms may shape communication. This study analyzes anxiety discourse on a Chinese online forum by employing topic modeling, topic's text contribution analysis, and corpus-assisted discourse analysis. Ten topics are identified, with “Psychotherapy,” “Health Anxieties and Medical Examinations,” and “Academic-Family Pressures” most prominent. Key findings show that users actively engage in peer support communication by normalizing anxiety and emphasizing psychotherapy. But their health anxieties are intensified by online searches and interactions with doctors. They also show distinct communication needs with family, friends, and teachers. The study highlights how discourse reflects and shapes anxiety experiences, offering insights for patients, healthcare professionals, and the public.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 106-119"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145109174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-21DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.008
Ana Deumert , Nkululeko Mabandla
In this paper we look at the work of Louis Tebogo Moholo-Moholo, the legendary South African drummer. Drawing on extensive interview data, we consider Bra Louis's reflections on his artistic practice, while also listening to his musical performances, to the sound of the drums and the collaborative improvisations that define the genre of ‘free jazz’. The analysis focuses on the semiotics of rhythm – its materiality and interactions with orders of time and timing – as well as on Bra Louis' credo of ‘just playing free’ in a world where this freedom doesn't exist. In exploring the meaning of freedom, we reflect on the semiotics of sound (drawing, especially, on Guattari's a-signifying semiotics), and conclude with an analysis of one of Bra Tebs' improvisations as an iconic-indexical instantiation of ‘being free’ in a world of oppression.
{"title":"‘So you think you can play with me’ – Louis Moholo-Moholo and the semiotics of freedom","authors":"Ana Deumert , Nkululeko Mabandla","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper we look at the work of Louis Tebogo Moholo-Moholo, the legendary South African drummer. Drawing on extensive interview data, we consider Bra Louis's reflections on his artistic practice, while also listening to his musical performances, to the sound of the drums and the collaborative improvisations that define the genre of ‘free jazz’. The analysis focuses on the semiotics of rhythm – its materiality and interactions with orders of time and timing – as well as on Bra Louis' credo of ‘just playing free’ in a world where this freedom doesn't exist. In exploring the meaning of freedom, we reflect on the semiotics of sound (drawing, especially, on Guattari's a-signifying semiotics), and conclude with an analysis of one of Bra Tebs' improvisations as an iconic-indexical instantiation of ‘being free’ in a world of oppression.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 94-105"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145106506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-20DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.007
Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales
This study examines style-shifting between monolingual and bilingual Cantonese-English styles in Hong Kong through audience design and indexicality. Using narrative elicitation, YouTube data, and an attitudinal experiment, it finds that bilingual styles are often downplayed in public but appear more robust in scripted speech, where speakers exercise greater control and tap into alternative indexical meanings. Attitudinal data confirm that these monolingual/bilingual styles carry distinct social meanings, shaped by processes such as enregisterment, which enable their mobilization. Based on these findings, the study proposes an “independent layers” socio-indexical model, where these styles function as distinct yet overlapping resources. In a field focused on micro-level shifts, this research contributes a novel Hong Kong perspective, showing how speakers navigate macro-stylistic choices amid shifting audiences, ideological pressures, and identity work in a postcolonial context.
{"title":"Shifting style-shifts? Higher-order style-shifting in Hong Kong Cantonese-English languaging through indexicality and audience design","authors":"Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines style-shifting between monolingual and bilingual Cantonese-English styles in Hong Kong through audience design and indexicality. Using narrative elicitation, YouTube data, and an attitudinal experiment, it finds that bilingual styles are often downplayed in public but appear more robust in scripted speech, where speakers exercise greater control and tap into alternative indexical meanings. Attitudinal data confirm that these monolingual/bilingual styles carry distinct social meanings, shaped by processes such as enregisterment, which enable their mobilization. Based on these findings, the study proposes an “independent layers” socio-indexical model, where these styles function as distinct yet overlapping resources. In a field focused on <em>micro</em>-level shifts, this research contributes a novel Hong Kong perspective, showing how speakers navigate <em>macro</em>-stylistic choices amid shifting audiences, ideological pressures, and identity work in a postcolonial context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 68-93"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145106609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-17DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.004
Song Hee Park
This study uses conversation analysis to examine how dentists, nurses, and patients collaboratively accomplish the transition into dental examination. Using video-recorded consultations from a dental clinic in Korea, this study shows that transitions are accomplished either through verbal announcements or tacitly, without them. In transitions involving announcements, dental professionals announce their exam-relevant actions, which elicit the nurse's assistance or the patient's cooperation. Tacit transitions rely primarily on participants' monitoring of one another's embodied actions and use of instruments, without announcements. In both types of transition, participants follow routine steps by drawing on procedural knowledge while managing contingencies through multimodal resources. This study advances our understanding of the triadic nature of dental consultations, multimodal social interaction, and inter-professional collaboration in healthcare.
{"title":"Achieving activity transitions in dental consultations: Managing interprofessional collaboration and patient cooperation during the transition to dental examination","authors":"Song Hee Park","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study uses conversation analysis to examine how dentists, nurses, and patients collaboratively accomplish the transition into dental examination. Using video-recorded consultations from a dental clinic in Korea, this study shows that transitions are accomplished either through verbal announcements or tacitly, without them. In transitions involving announcements, dental professionals announce their exam-relevant actions, which elicit the nurse's assistance or the patient's cooperation. Tacit transitions rely primarily on participants' monitoring of one another's embodied actions and use of instruments, without announcements. In both types of transition, participants follow routine steps by drawing on procedural knowledge while managing contingencies through multimodal resources. This study advances our understanding of the triadic nature of dental consultations, multimodal social interaction, and inter-professional collaboration in healthcare.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 52-67"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145106507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-17DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.005
Ran Liao , Brian Hok-Shing Chan
During the COVID-19 lockdown in China, frontline healthcare workers handwrote their names on protective gear for identification, often accompanied with slogans and images. Based on a dataset of 306 photographs, this research investigates the social actions performed through these “graffiti”, analyzing how they construct affective regimes and resemiotize the protective gear and healthcare workers. Five social actions are identified, namely, boosting public morale and social cohesion, enhancing the health workers’ own morale, envisioning the future, engaging in community celebrations, and, lastly, expressing love and longing. The affective regimes constructed include solidarity, pride and empathy, which mitigate tensions due to the unequal power relationship between healthcare workers and the public. The graffiti transforms the protective gear from a symbol of alienation and power inequality to one affording communication and friendship; it also turns the healthcare workers from symbols of health threats and power to peers and relatable individuals. Specific to the China context, these graffiti prominently reflect collectivist thinking, contrasting with individualized expressions in Covidscape elsewhere or other types of graffiti discourse. Moreover, metaphors of WAR and WINTER are always used to frame the COVID-19 crisis.
{"title":"“Graffiti” on protective gear in China's Covidscape: Mediated actions, affective regimes and resemiotization","authors":"Ran Liao , Brian Hok-Shing Chan","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>During the COVID-19 lockdown in China, frontline healthcare workers handwrote their names on protective gear for identification, often accompanied with slogans and images. Based on a dataset of 306 photographs, this research investigates the social actions performed through these “graffiti”, analyzing how they construct affective regimes and resemiotize the protective gear and healthcare workers. Five social actions are identified, namely, boosting public morale and social cohesion, enhancing the health workers’ own morale, envisioning the future, engaging in community celebrations, and, lastly, expressing love and longing. The affective regimes constructed include solidarity, pride and empathy, which mitigate tensions due to the unequal power relationship between healthcare workers and the public. The graffiti transforms the protective gear from a symbol of alienation and power inequality to one affording communication and friendship; it also turns the healthcare workers from symbols of health threats and power to peers and relatable individuals. Specific to the China context, these graffiti prominently reflect collectivist thinking, contrasting with individualized expressions in Covidscape elsewhere or other types of graffiti discourse. Moreover, metaphors of WAR and WINTER are always used to frame the COVID-19 crisis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 37-51"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145106509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-16DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.002
Ewa Jarmołowicz-Nowikow, Maciej Karpiński
Naïve observers and researchers alike segment behavior into manageable units for analysis; yet, the nature and application of these units vary. This study examines differences in gesture segmentation between naïve observers and experts, as well as variability among naïve observers. We review a range of gesture definitions and segmentation cues, emphasizing the distinctions between perceiving gestures in interpersonal interactions and identifying them in video recordings, whether by trained or untrained annotators. In our empirical study, naïve observers annotated gestures and their prominent phases under two conditions: video-only (“silence”) and video with audio (“speech”), using ELAN software. The analyzed material consisted of an excerpt from a Member of Parliament's address. The results revealed no significant differences between conditions in the number of identified gestures, total or mean gesture duration. However, we found different levels of inter-annotator agreement in the two conditions and identified certain patterns in how participants distinguished gestures from the continuous flow of hand movements, which differed from expert segmentations. Results showed variability in annotation granularity, with naïve observers marking fewer gestures than experts. Additionally, prominence marking varied: naïve observers differed from experts, especially in the “silence” condition. These findings underscore the nonintuitive nature of gestures as behavioral units and the influence of theoretical training on segmentation practices.
{"title":"Boundaries of gestures: Naive segmentation of the stream of human hand movements","authors":"Ewa Jarmołowicz-Nowikow, Maciej Karpiński","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Naïve observers and researchers alike segment behavior into manageable units for analysis; yet, the nature and application of these units vary. This study examines differences in gesture segmentation between naïve observers and experts, as well as variability among naïve observers. We review a range of gesture definitions and segmentation cues, emphasizing the distinctions between perceiving gestures in interpersonal interactions and identifying them in video recordings, whether by trained or untrained annotators. In our empirical study, naïve observers annotated gestures and their prominent phases under two conditions: video-only (“silence”) and video with audio (“speech”), using ELAN software. The analyzed material consisted of an excerpt from a Member of Parliament's address. The results revealed no significant differences between conditions in the number of identified gestures, total or mean gesture duration. However, we found different levels of inter-annotator agreement in the two conditions and identified certain patterns in how participants distinguished gestures from the continuous flow of hand movements, which differed from expert segmentations. Results showed variability in annotation granularity, with naïve observers marking fewer gestures than experts. Additionally, prominence marking varied: naïve observers differed from experts, especially in the “silence” condition. These findings underscore the nonintuitive nature of gestures as behavioral units and the influence of theoretical training on segmentation practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 22-36"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145106508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-15DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.08.003
Pablo Agustin Artero Abellan
This article examines how intonation functions as a mechanism of emotional framing in political speech. Drawing on a multimodal analysis of campaign rally fragments from Donald Trump and Barack Obama during the 2016 U.S. election, the study investigates how prosodic features—pitch contour, tempo, pausing, intensity, and voice quality—shape affective alignment and ideological positioning. Using acoustic analysis (via Praat) and discourse-pragmatic interpretation, the article identifies distinct prosodic strategies that frame reassurance, attack, and collective emotion. Trump's delivery is characterized by steep pitch falls, high intensity, and compressed tempo, projecting certainty and control. Obama, by contrast, employs rising–falling contours, tonal modulation, and slowed tempo to model emotional co-presence and reflective unity. These patterns reveal contrasting affective logics of leadership: one performative and populist, the other dialogic and compositional. The article contributes to prosodic pragmatics, political communication, and affect theory by demonstrating how intonation operates not merely as an expressive overlay but as a core semiotic system for constructing political meaning in real time.
{"title":"“Intonation and emotional framing in political rallies:A multimodal approach to populist political speech”","authors":"Pablo Agustin Artero Abellan","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.08.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.08.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines how intonation functions as a mechanism of emotional framing in political speech. Drawing on a multimodal analysis of campaign rally fragments from Donald Trump and Barack Obama during the 2016 U.S. election, the study investigates how prosodic features—pitch contour, tempo, pausing, intensity, and voice quality—shape affective alignment and ideological positioning. Using acoustic analysis (via Praat) and discourse-pragmatic interpretation, the article identifies distinct prosodic strategies that frame reassurance, attack, and collective emotion. Trump's delivery is characterized by steep pitch falls, high intensity, and compressed tempo, projecting certainty and control. Obama, by contrast, employs rising–falling contours, tonal modulation, and slowed tempo to model emotional co-presence and reflective unity. These patterns reveal contrasting affective logics of leadership: one performative and populist, the other dialogic and compositional. The article contributes to prosodic pragmatics, political communication, and affect theory by demonstrating how intonation operates not merely as an expressive overlay but as a core semiotic system for constructing political meaning in real time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 10-21"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145059925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-04DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.08.002
Shunkai Wang
The non-cognitive content account by Donald Davidson ascribes metaphor to the domain of use and asserts that metaphors only have literal meanings. We argue that the Davidsonian approach cannot elucidate the way information is conveyed. Davidson and his supporters’ arguments fail to capture the nature of similes and dead metaphors. From their perspective, metaphor understanding is attributed merely to its aesthetic aspect. We contend that metaphors can not only evoke experience but also communicate knowledge. We address the deficiency of the Davidsonian account through dead metaphor, simile and aesthetic properties. Structure mapping theory and research on embodiment can provide novel insights into the meaning-construction underlying metaphor comprehension. Emphasizing the cognitive account, we posit a paradigm of proposition construction procedure underpinning metaphor comprehension.
{"title":"The propositional meaning of metaphor: A critical review against the Davidsonian approach","authors":"Shunkai Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.08.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.08.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The non-cognitive content account by Donald Davidson ascribes metaphor to the domain of use and asserts that metaphors only have literal meanings. We argue that the Davidsonian approach cannot elucidate the way information is conveyed. Davidson and his supporters’ arguments fail to capture the nature of similes and dead metaphors. From their perspective, metaphor understanding is attributed merely to its aesthetic aspect. We contend that metaphors can not only evoke experience but also communicate knowledge. We address the deficiency of the Davidsonian account through dead metaphor, simile and aesthetic properties. Structure mapping theory and research on embodiment can provide novel insights into the meaning-construction underlying metaphor comprehension. Emphasizing the cognitive account, we posit a paradigm of proposition construction procedure underpinning metaphor comprehension.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144989585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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