This thesis investigates what types of teaching approaches and methods can be used when teaching idiomatic expressions to learners of English. The method used is a small-scale research synthesis where studies are summarized, compared and discussed. An overview of the teaching approaches and methods provide an outline of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach/method in connection to the purpose of teaching idioms to language learners of English. Several different descriptions of idioms are merged into one that is used in this research synthesis. The results indicate that even though teaching procedures appealing to Multiple Intelligences are most common in the articles used for this thesis, there are several different ways to improve learners’ idiom comprehension. Every teacher should have in mind that all students are unique and learn in different ways but some generalizations can be helpful when planning lessons. Keywords: idioms, figurative language, teaching method, teaching approach

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-04-27T12:42:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ariane Mieco Sugayama.pdf: 3477465 bytes, checksum: a1259652944592ed320582146ac7fd6e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-27T12:42:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ariane Mieco Sugayama.pdf: 3477465 bytes, checksum: a1259652944592ed320582146ac7fd6e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / When reading is linked to a monological teaching-learning model, it silences the interpretive voice and marginalizes the reader’s subjectivity. In contrast to this approach, the Think Aloud in Group literacy practice, which is being built by the teachers and researchers in the GEIM research group, seeks to transform the teaching practices as well as the reading identity of their students (QUEIROZ, 2009; TAVARES DOS SANTOS, 2013; among others). The Think Aloud in Group is a dialogical and collaborative literacy practice that aims to provide space to the voice and the subjectivity of readers so that they can share, negotiate, co-construct and evaluate the different meanings of the text in face-to-face interaction (ZANOTTO, 2014a). As a result of the reader’s protagonism, the occurrence of multiple interpretations is possible because each reader can position him/herself in an active and responsive manner regarding the text. For the teacher, working with multiple interpretations has been challenging since the dominant sociocultural model within the school context is of single reading. Thus, the study of multiple text readings is the focus of this thesis, aiming to contribute to the transformation of literary reading teaching. The goals of this study, inserted in the Applied Linguistics area, are: 1) investigate the multiple interpretations of figurative language and the gaps/silences in the short story A Moça Tecelã [The Weaving Girl] (COLASANTI, 2004); 1.2) analyze the socio-cognitive processes involved in the co-construction of multiple readings. The study’s questions are: 1) What were the multiple interpretations of the literary text? 1.1) What are the socio-cognitive processes involved in the co-construction of the multiple interpretations? 2) In which aspects can the investigation of the sociocognitive processes, involved in the co-construction of the multiple interpretations, contribute to literary literacy? This qualitative study (DENZIN; LINCOLN, 2006) has an interpretative orientation (MOITA LOPES, 1994); the research strategy adopted is the instrumental case study. The theoretical basis is related to studies about literacy and literature, the teaching of literature, cognition involved in the interpretation of figurative language, and epistemology of language and communication. The methodological instruments used were: 1) The Think Aloud in Group as method facet; and 2) the reading diary. The subjects of the study were four readers, whose professions are related to reading and to children and young adult literature. The results obtained revealed the co-construction of five readings for the story, which were partially explained through the Parable Theory (TURNER, 1996) and the Theory of Conceptual Blending (FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2002). However, the data highlighted the readers’ cognitive operations; for example, several inferential rationale involved in the interpretation of figurative language, which were explained in the studies by Zanotto (2010) and Moura; Zanotto (2009). As to the contribution of this study for literary literacy, the data obtained revealed that there was a reflexive comprehension of language figures and of gaps in the text / A leitura, quando atrelada a um modelo de ensino-aprendizagem monológico, silencia a voz interpretativa e marginaliza a subjetividade do leitor. Contrapondo-se a essa abordagem a prática de letramento Pensar Alto em Grupo vem sendo construída pelos professores-pesquisadores do grupo de pesquisa GEIM, buscando tanto uma transformação das práticas docentes quanto da identidade leitora de seus alunos (QUEIROZ, 2009; TAVARES DOS SANTOS, 2013; dentre outros). O Pensar Alto em Grupo é uma prática de letramento dialógica e colaborativa que procura dar espaço à voz e à subjetividade dos leitores, a fim de que possam partilhar, negociar, coconstruir e avaliar os diferentes sentidos do texto numa interação face a face (ZANOTTO, 2014a). Em decorrência desse protagonismo do leitor, é possível ocorrer múltiplas leituras, pois cada leitor pode se posicionar de forma ativa e responsiva perante o texto. Para o professor, o trabalho com as múltiplas leituras mostra-se desafiador, já que o modelo sociocultural dominante no contexto escolar é o da leitura única. Por essa razão, o estudo das múltiplas leituras do texto constitui o foco desta tese, visando contribuir para a transformação do ensino de leitura literária. Os objetivos desta pesquisa, inserida na área da Linguística Aplicada, são: 1) investigar as múltiplas leituras da linguagem figurada e das lacunas/silêncios do texto A Moça Tecelã (COLASANTI, 2004); 1.2) analisar os processos sociocognitivos envolvidos na coconstrução das múltiplas leituras. As perguntas de pesquisa são: 1) Quais foram as múltiplas leituras do texto literário? 1.1) Quais os processos sociocognitivos envolvidos na coconstrução das múltiplas leituras? 2) Em quais aspectos a investigação dos processos sociocognitivos, envolvidos na coconstrução das múltiplas leituras, pode contribuir para o letramento literário? Esta pesquisa, de natureza qualitativa, (DENZIN; LINCOLN, 2006), tem orientação interpretativista (MOITA LOPES, 1994) e a estratégia de pesquisa adotada é o estudo de caso instrumental. A fundamentação teórica relaciona-se a estudos sobre letramento e leitura, ensino de literatura, cognição envolvida na interpretação da linguagem figurada e epistemologia da linguagem e da comunicação. Os instrumentos metodológicos utilizados foram: 1) o Pensar Alto em Grupo em sua faceta de método e 2) o diário de leitura. Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram quatro leitoras, cujas profissões se relacionam à leitura e à literatura infanto-juvenil. Já os resultados obtidos revelaram a coconstrução de cinco leituras para o conto, que foram parcialmente explicadas pela Teoria da Parábola (TURNER, 1996) e pela Teoria da Mesclagem Conceptual (FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2002). No entanto, os dados evidenciaram operações cognitivas dos leitores, como, por exemplo, diversos raciocínios inferenciais envolvidos na interpretação da linguagem figurada, que foram explicados pelos estudos de Zanotto (2010) e Moura; Zanotto (2009). Em relação à contribuição desta pesquisa, para um letramento literário, os dados obtidos revelaram que houve uma compreensão reflexiva das figuras de linguagem e lacunas do texto

During high-impact weather events like Hurricane Harvey, broadcast meteorologists take on the role of sensegiver, as they develop frameworks to help their viewers make sense of the storm. These frameworks are communicated through rhetorical choices evident in the language the meteorologists use to describe the storm’s threat and impact. This study investigates the rhetorical choices of KHOU broadcast meteorologists during Hurricane Harvey in order to make sense of the disaster, using an inductive thematic analysis. The results indicate that the KHOU broadcasters framed Harvey figuratively as an all-encompassing monster and a heat-seeking machine. The meteorologists used emotionally intense language to emphasize their concern about the forecast, to compare the event to previous flooding disasters, to describe Harvey’s catastrophic impact, and to express disbelief regarding the situation unfolding around them. These results show how sensegiving can be articulated rhetorically via specific language features like describing Harvey as a monster, or comparing Harvey’s impact to Hurricane Katrina. These specific language features identified here should be tested for their effectiveness in order to allow meteorologists across the weather enterprise to speak about threats and impacts in a more consistent manner.

The relationship between the literal language and conduct problems among conduct disordered adolescents was examined in 109 subjects. The inability to use figurative language was found to be positively related to ratings of conduct problems. Both the parents' discipline style and nonuse of figurative language were related to 111 conduct problems in conduct disordered adolescents. The possible role of other variables, for example, age, sex, and IQ, was examined. Possible mechanisms that could relate the lack of figurative competence and conduct problems were explored.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze certain stylistic as well as thematic aspects in prose fiction. The analysis focuses on the representation of relationships and mystique with regard to the use of punctuation, repetition and other forms of figurative language in both original and translation of romances Black Rose (2005) and Red Lily (2007) by Nora Roberts. The analysis is based on the theory of romance novels and the use of stylistic aspects in representation of the themes relationships and mystique. The paper is divided into five parts and includes appendices. Part One introduces the aim of the paper and gives a short summary of the romance novels Black Rose (2005) and Red Lily (2007) by Nora Roberts. Part Two presents the theory of romance as well as the role of mystique in romance, and outlines the theoretical background for the analysis. Part Three focuses on the theoretical aspects of theme and style and the translation problems in prose fiction, namely in the romance novels. An analysis of the cases found in the two romance novels is presented in Part Four where Chapter 4.1 focuses on the use of style in representing the theme of mystique and translation problems. Chapter 4.1 is further subdivided into Section 4.1.1 which dwells on the usage of repetition, Section 4.1.1 analyzes the use of other forms of figurative language, and Section 4.1.3 focuses on the use of punctuation patterns. Chapter 4.2 is devoted to the stylistic aspects representing the theme of... [to full text] / Šio darbo tikslas - išanalizuoti tam tikrus stilistinius ir teminius aspektus grožinėje literatūroje. Daugiausia dėmesio skiriama tarpusavio santykių ir mistikos elementų vaizdavimui, naudojant skyrybos, pakartojimo ir kitus vaizdingos kalbos elementus Nora Roberts romanuose “Juodoji rožė” (2005) ir “Raudonoji lelija” (2007). Analizė yra pagrįsta romano teorija ir stilistiniais aspektais, vaizduojant mistikos ir tarpusavio santykių temas. Darbą sudaro penkios pagrindinės dalys ir du priedai. Pirmojoje dalyje pristatomas darbo tikslas ir pateikiamos trumpos knygų santraukos. Antrojoje dalyje pristatoma romano teorija ir mistikos elementų romane reikšmė, o taip pat pateikiama teorinė medžiaga, kuria bus remiamasi praktinėje dalyje. Trečioji dalis dėmesį skiria teoriniams temos ir stiliaus aspektams ir jų vertimo problemoms grožinėje literatūroje, šiuo atveju, romanams. Ketvirtoje dalyje pateikiama pavyzdžių , rastų Nora Roberts romanuose „Juodoji rožė“ (2005) ir „Raudonoji lelija“ (2007), analizė. Skyrius 4.1 dėmesį skiria mistikos temos vaizdavimui ir jo vertimo problemoms. Skyrius 4.1 yra suskirstytas į poskyrius, kur poskyris 4.1.1 nagrinėja pakartojimų naudojimą, poskyris 4.1.2 nagrinėja kitas vaizdingos kalbos formas, o poskyris 4.1.3 dėmesį kreipia į skyrybos problemas. Skyrius 4.2 nagrinėja stilistinius aspektus vaizduojant tarpusavio santykių temą. Poskyriuose 4.2.1, 4.2.2 ir 4.2.3 nagrinėjami pavyzdžiai su pakartojimais, kitomis vaizdingos kalbos formomis ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

I argue that the procession is a deliberate, desirable, and destabilizing social formation. In scholarship of the American nineteenth century, the procession is lost among the clutter of other urban assemblies—crowds, parades, riots—and never fully articulated as a unique vehicle for collective expression. The procession is an attractive alternative to tyrannical majorities and unwise crowds because of its linearity, rationality, and encompassment. Central to the trope of the procession, however, is the wayside or the periphery, adjacent spaces which are often discarded or suppressed by the procession’s forward movement. I trace the variations of this American allegory—national progress and its exclusions—across different genres in the writing of Nathaniel Hawthorne (domestic-cosmic sketches), Walt Whitman (war-time poetic fantasies), Emily Dickinson (regal satires), and as an informing but repudiated element of Martin Delany’s novel Blake; or The Huts of America. These authors critique chaotic and gaudy groups, and instead propose gentle and haptic ones. Whitman, Dickinson, and Delany also have in common their oblique contemplations of the Civil War and President Lincoln’s assassination. Although Lincoln’s multi-state funeral procession is an overwrought spectacle, the procession is so often virtuous because it is the opposite of the state funeral: the authors I consider presuppose, in their sporadic ways, an austere nature to the procession, as fundamental as the dictums “We, the people” or E pluribus unum. Yet, the “grand difficulty,” in Hawthorne’s words, is that in reality and on the streets, the procession’s conceptual intuitiveness—as all-inclusive and leveling as a “procession of life”—recedes from view, deteriorates into chaos, and must be constantly rehabilitated. My tropological analysis of American literature grapples with a vision of democratic organization and process that is not conceived of as the result of collective self-articulation and -determination. What is startling about membership in a procession is how often it does not respect individual choice. It is coercive; you are participating. The procession’s “measured and beautiful motion,” in Whitman’s words, topples assertive modes of authorship, leadership, and ownership because ever-present waysides flatten the hierarchy of center over periphery. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-03 12:51:58.064

Traditionally, mathematics and metaphor have been thought of as disparate: the former rigorous, objective, universal, eternal, and fundamental; the latter imprecise, derivative, nearly - if not patently - false, and therefore of merely aesthetic value, at best. A growing amount of contemporary scholarship argues that both of these characterizations are flawed. This dissertation shows that there are important connexions between mathematics and metaphor that benefit our understanding of both. A historically structured overview of traditional theories of metaphor reveals it to be a notion that is complicated, controversial, and inadequately understood; this motivates a non-traditional approach. Paradigmatically shifting the locus of metaphor from the linguistic to the conceptual - as George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, and many other contemporary metaphor scholars do - overcomes problems plaguing traditional theories and promisingly advances our understanding of both metaphor and of concepts. It is argued that conceptual metaphor plays a key role in explaining how mathematics is grounded, and simultaneously provides a mechanism for reconciling and integrating the strengths of traditional theories of mathematics usually understood as mutually incompatible. Conversely, it is shown that metaphor can be usefully and consistently understood in terms of mathematics. However, instead of developing a rigorous mathematical model of metaphor, the unorthodox approach of applying mathematical concepts metaphorically is defended.

The topic of this dissertation is the stylistic application of Figurative Language Device in Baroque Homilie. As a material information source serves sermons focused on e.g. praise of St. John of Nepomuk. The dissertation drala with a concept of every single preacher writing in the last period of the Czech Baroque. The sermons date back to years 17271734. The opening part sum sup the basic features of historical the same as stylistic Baroque with specialization in Homilie. Furthermore, the work follows up the Figurative Language Devices in every Homilie. The goal of this work is to provide a charakteristic of Figurative Language Devices (e.g. simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, periphrasis, personification, oxymoron, allegory, symbol, allusion etc.). This dissertation aims to prove their importance and function in the Baroque Homilie in order to extend one's knowledge about Rhetorical Art of the Baroque Preachers.

Master of Science / Psychological Sciences / Richard J. Harris / Figurative language use is not limited to poetry or literature but is a ubiquitous part of speech. Studies that looked at figurative language comprehension have shown that some cognitive mechanisms, such as working memory, may be involved in figurative language comprehension. For example, individuals with high working memory span tend to produce deeper metaphor interpretations. The current work was interested in how working memory is involved in a particular figure of speech comprehension: idioms. An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be simply deduced from the literal meanings of the words that comprise that idiom. Idioms can vary according to their compositionality, which refers to the extent with which meanings of the idiom constituents provide cues for the idiom's idiomatic meaning. A number of researchers agreed upon certain idioms being decomposable and other idioms being fixed. The two different types were used in the Main Study. Models of idiom comprehension also vary from traditional "lexical look-up" models that consider idioms as multi-word lexical units stored as such in speakers' mental lexicons to "nonlexical" models, such as the Configuration Hypothesis, that states that an idiom as a whole does not have a separate lexical representation in the mental lexicon. Both models are considered in this work. Finally, understanding idiomatic expressions may require inhibiting irrelevant literal information. For example, literal meanings of the words dogs and cats in an idiom it is raining cats and dogs have to be inhibited in order to gather the figurative meaning of the expression. Thus, the main objective of the current work was to assess the role of working memory in idiom comprehension, as well as to explore whether idiom compositionality had an effect on how fast idioms were interpreted, while also considering implications for the two main models of idiom comprehension. A Preliminary Study narrowed down the list of idioms to the 26 that were used in the Main study, ensuring that both types of idioms did not differ in familiarity or length. The Main Study consisted of four tasks: working memory (Operation span task), inhibition (reading with distractions), idiom comprehension, and familiarity. Seventy-three general psychology students participated in the Main Study. The data were analyzed by several regression analyses and t-tests. The main finding was that there seems to be a difference in a way the two accepted types of idioms are interpreted: fixed idioms were interpreted faster than decomposable idioms. This is consistent with the lexical lookup hypothesis but only for fixed idioms and suggests that readers may not have to analyze the literal word meanings of fixed idioms when interpreting them, thus making their interpretation faster, since retrieving is faster than computing. Neither familiarity nor idiom length could account for this difference. On the other hand, neither operation span nor the number of critical errors committed by participants on the inhibition task predicted how long it took participants to interpret either type of idioms. Several possible explanations for such results are discussed, as well as the limitations and future directions.

Orientadora: Profª. Drª. Maria Teresa Carthery-Goulart / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociência e Cognição, 2017. / Uma série de modelos e hipóteses já foram propostas para descrever como o cérebro processa figuras de linguagem. Uma questão central no debate dessa temática é se a compreensão de figuras de linguagem configura um tipo especial de material linguístico que desvie dos processos comuns de processamento da linguagem (literal), demandando mecanismos adicionais para a compreensão. A técnica de potencial relacionado a evento (ERP), focado no marcador eletrofisiológico N400, tem sido a ferramenta mais comum para obtenção de evidências sobre o acesso ao sentido figurativo, fornecendo indícios sobre como se comportam as etapas do curso de processamento figurativo em comparação ao literal. No entanto, algumas controvérsias sobre o seu uso podem surgir pela interpretação da funcionalidade do N400 e quais tipos de variáveis têm potencial de influenciar os níveis desse marcador. A presente dissertação é dividida em dois estudos, o primeiro teve como objetivo verificar e sumarizar os usos da componente N400 em uma revisão crítica da literatura sobre quais tipos de processos o N400 indexa. O segundo estudo foi feito em abordagem experimental com o objetivo de investigar o curso temporal do processamento semântico de verbos empregados de forma figurativa. Os participantes foram submetidos a uma tarefa de julgamento de plausibilidade de três tipos de sentenças (metafóricas, idiomáticas e literais), em que foram registrados os tempos de reação e, simultaneamente, as respostas eletrofisiológicas para cada condição. Os dados comportamentais demonstraram que o processamento de sentenças idiomáticas é mais rápido que as demais condições e que as metáforas foram a condição com maior demanda de tempo de processamento. Os resultados do EEG mostraram que as sentenças idiomáticas não apresentaram a deflexão negativa característica do N400, por outro lado, as metafóricas e literais apresentaram grandes picos de N400, mas sem diferenças estatisticamente significantes entre si. Os resultados evidenciam que não há efeito de figuratividade na janela temporal do N400, mas indicam possíveis efeitos mais tardios do julgamento do sentido figurado relacionados com os tempos de reação. Esses resultados dão suporte a hipótese de Saliência Graduada e Teoria do Mapeamento Conceitual, além disso, a dissertação como um todo fornece evidências que corroboram com a visão de acesso lexical do N400. / A number of models and hypotheses have been proposed to describe how the brain process figurative language. A central question is whether the comprehension of figurative language configures a special kind of linguistic material that deviates from the common mechanism of language processing (literal), so demanding additional processing for the comprehension. The event-related potential (ERP) technique, focused on the N400 electrophysiological marker, has been the most common way for obtaining evidence on the access to the figurative meaning. However, some controversies over its use may arise from the interpretation of the N400 functionality and which types of variables have been considered confounding factors of this potential. The present dissertation is divided in two studies: the first one aimed at verifying and summarizing the uses of the N400 component in a critical review of the literature on what types of processes the N400 indexes. The second study was done in an experimental approach aimed to investigating the temporal course of the semantic processing of verbs used figuratively. The participants undertook a plausibility judgment task of three conditions of sentences (metaphorical, idiomatic and literal), in which the reaction times were recorded and, simultaneously, electrophysiological responses. In the behavioral study, it was observed that the processing of idiomatic sentences is much faster than two other conditions, and the metaphors are longer than literal. The EEG results showed that the idiomatic sentences did not present the negative deflection characteristic of the N400; on the other hand, the metaphorical and literal ones presented large peaks of N400, but without significant statistical differences between them. The results show that there is no figurative effect in the N400 temporal window, but they indicate possible later effects of the judgment of the figurative sense, related to reaction times. Our study provides evidence that metaphorical processing has no literal content differences in the first processing window. These results support the hypothesis of Graduated Salience and Conceptual Mapping Theory, in addition, the dissertation as a whole provides evidence that corroborate with the lexical access view of the N400.