The Vertical-Spatial Metaphor of Emotions in Text Reading

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2013, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (2) : 328-334.

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PDF(1141 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2013, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (2) : 328-334.

The Vertical-Spatial Metaphor of Emotions in Text Reading

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Abstract

“Metaphors we live by ”which is written by Lakoff and Johnson puts forward that met- aphors exist generally in daily life, covering language, thought and behavior, almost everywhere. They consider that spatial metaphor is the most important and basic cognitive domain in all the m- etaphors. The vertical-spatial metaphor is a cognitive style which is mapping from up-down spati- al orientation concept to other cognitive domains. In this paper, two experiments were conducted to investigate the psychological reality of the vertical-spatial metaphor of emotions which is "hap- py is up, sad is down" in text reading. In experiment 1, 25 participants are assigned to read an emotional discourse presenting sente- nce by sentence at first, then to react to the letter "F" or "J" presenting above or below the screen. The purpose of the experiment is to explore whether reading different emotional discourses would produce vertical-spatial metaphor or not. The results show that subjects react quickly to the letters which present above the spatial location while reading positive emotional discourses, and react qu- ickly to the letters which present in the bottom of the spatial location while reading negative emot- ional discourses. In other words, there is a mapping from the source domain to the target domain of the vertical-spatial metaphor of emotions in text. In experiment 2, 30 participants read text containing a spatial displacement at first, then judge the gender of the emotional pictures presenting above or below the screen at random by unrelating task paradigm. The purpose of the experiment is to explore whether reading different discourses c- ontaining different spatial displacements would affect responses to different emotional pictures of subjects or not. Because the locations of the emotional pictures are presenting at random, the effe- ct of its presenting position to the results of the experiment has been balanced, and we needn’t co- nsider of the effect of it. The results show that the spatial factors affect the reactions to emotional pictures. That is, subjects response fast to positive emotional pictures while reading discourse con- taining moving up in space, and response fast to negative emotional pictures while reading discou- rse containing moving down in space.In other words, there is a mapping from the target domain to the source domain of vertical-spatial metaphor of emotions in text. This study reveals that the vertical-spatial metaphor of emotions exist in discourse context, and there is a bidirectional mapping between space, the original domain, and mood, the target domain in nature.

Key words

text reading ,vertical-spatial metaphor, positive emotions, negative emotions

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The Vertical-Spatial Metaphor of Emotions in Text Reading[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2013, 36(2): 328-334
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