Pragmatics Reading Group - Bálint Forgács

Speaker: Bálint Forgács

Title: Metaphors are Abstract? Novel Data and a Novel Model for Metaphor Processing

Abstract: Recent findings show that metaphors are processed similarly to abstract language, not to concrete expressions: they not only fail to elicit the electrophysiological concreteness effect, but the ERP responses they evoke are the stronger the more abstract they are rated. These results profoundly challenge embodied cognition, and they also ask for new explanations for the neurocognitive processes figurative language requires. I am going to present a novel model, Abstract Conceptual Substitution for metaphor comprehension, and briefly address their pragmatic role in communication.

The talk will take place online on Zoom - a link will be sent out nearer the time. 

For further information and future updates on the seminars, go to the Pragmatics Reading Group web page: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/linguistics/linguistics-events/pragmatics-reading-group