This dissertation examines the role of metaphorical language in early Buddhist literature through the lens of two previously unpublished Gandhari sutras on a manuscript from the Robert Senior Collection. At the microscopic level, I offer an edition, translation, and textual analysis of a Buddhist manuscript containing two Sa?yuktagama-type sutras…

This dissertation suggests that metaphors are a powerful learning tool in education and a way to develop as a professional educator. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain a deeper understanding of how teachers utilize metaphors during reflection. I addressed their experience with metaphors, how they use metaphors, how metaphors…

Indirect metaphors are pervasive in everyday language: People talk about "long" vacations, "short" tempers, and "colorful" language. But, why do we use concrete lexical items that are associated with the physical world when we talk about abstract, or non-physical, concepts? A potential answer is provided by proponents…

Across the globe and throughout history, politics are regularly divided into "left-leaning" and "right-leaning" camps. Explaining the sources of this conservative-liberal divide has become a major quest in the cognitive and social sciences. Early attempts have focused on self-interest as a possible explanation. However, as the…

Throughout history, preachers have used various models to understand the relationship between the preacher and the hearers of sermons. In recent years, homileticians have responded to the challenges of postmodernism by exploring the metaphor of conversation as a way to develop less hierarchical or authoritarian conceptions of role and authority.…

This dissertation uses syntactic, semantic and morphological evidence from English nominalization to probe the interaction of event-structure and syntax, develop a typology of structural complexity within nominalization, and test hypotheses about the strict ordering of functional items. I focus on the widely assumed typology of nominalization…

Metaphorical expressions appear once every twenty words in everyday language, and play a central role in communication. Some cognitive linguistic theories propose that understanding metaphorical expressions requires mappings from one conceptual domain to the other. My research uses Event-Related Potentials to examine the processing, the…