In this study, we used a novel cognitive paradigm and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (ER-fMRI) to investigate the neural substrates involved in processing three different types of sentences. Participants read either metaphoric ("Some surgeons are butchers"), literal ("Some surgeons are fathers"), or non-meaningful sentences…

The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service elementary teachers' metaphors of teaching and literacy and then relate their metaphorical images of literacy to content presented in the reading methods course. Specifically, 52 participants generated responses to open-ended statements, "Teaching is..." and "Literacy is..." Results indicated…

This book explains the usage of more than 1,000 food-related expressions in everyday English. The 13 comprehensive chapters of the book cover the entire alphabet of food phrases from "soup to nuts" (or as in the index, from "above the salt" to "zest") as well as cooking and dining terms. The book provides many food…

Based on the idea that poetry, like any art, is best mastered through practice, this handbook for poets combines poetry-writing exercises with personal essays by each contributing poet. Some of the poets represented in the handbook are: Maxine Kumin, Rita Dove, Roger Mitchell, Carol Muske, Sydney Lea, and J. D. McClatchy. The exercises in the…

Two studies investigated the processing of familiar and unfamiliar figurative language. Subjects read paragraphs containing figurative sentences (proverbs in study 1 and metaphors in study 2) or literal controls; later subjects were given a cued recall test designed to test their memory for contextually inappropriate meanings (a literal cue for a…

As a shrewd technician of the language, A. L. Tennyson rightly understood that words are not controllable; they do not always obey rules. As Tennyson said, words "half reveal and half conceal the soul within." In "Ulysses," the title character's speech to his fellow mariners--where he attempts to explain why he has decided to…

Just as rhetoric is a way of knowing, so is poetic, both of which, for Francis Bacon, produce false knowledge. But Bacon is not entirely negative. When the poetic elements of language are used in strategic and public communication, like the scholarly communication Bacon attempts to reform, poetic and rhetoric work together to create a plurality of…

Examples cited refute a generally accepted view that the origins of metaphors are arbitrary. To illustrate this point, examples are cited of how products of nature (curcubitic plants: melons, pumpkins) are used as references to people and their characteristics (hardiness, appearance, texture, inertness, reproductive and sexual connotations). In…

A speechwriter who prepares a text for public address should first consider whether he or she is going to deliver the speech personally and should be careful to select a topic which the potential audience will not strongly oppose. From the introduction of a speech to its conclusion, a speechwriter should have definite goals, present an appropriate…

Presents several socio-cultural contexts where both extremes of crudeness and euphemism are customary in everyday verbal communication. (TL)

Assuming that all problem solving has both its rational and poetic aspects and that the solution to a problem is often found in the poetic well before it surfaces in the rational, this study examined in detail the ebb and flow of figurative language as it occurred in the course of a single, highly successful hour of gestalt therapy involving both…

Reviews scholarship on the interdependence of rhetoric and poetic language, and proposes a performance as argument model for the oral interpretation of literature. Relates the model to current work on the relationship of narrative to argument and suggests benefits gained from its adoption. (SR)

Explores whether the interpretation of figurative passages presents a comprehension problem different from that of any difficult text. Indicates that although some abilities important in processing isolated figurative expressions carry over to figurative passage interpretation, these figurative-unique abilities can not definitively account for the…