Conceptual Metaphors of Emotion in Spoken Language: Good Is Up in Semantics and Prosody

Recent research on embodied cognition points to a role for the perceptuomotor system in conceptual representation. One way that the perceptuomotor system may be involved in conceptual representation is through metaphorical mappings, as described in Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). This theory accounts for the embodiment of abstract concepts with metaphoric mappings to perceptuomotor properties. Examples include INTELLIGENCE IS LIGHT (as in “that is a bright idea”), IMPORTANT IS BIG (as in “that is a big deal”), and INTIMACY IS CLOSENESS (as in “you are close to my heart”). The GOOD IS UP (as in “things are looking up”) conceptual metaphor is the focus of this thesis. A prediction derived from Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that activation of the concept of “good” should automatically activate associated perceptuomotor processes, resulting in an attentional shift to upper visual space. Conversely activation of the concept “bad” should result in an attentional shift to lower visual space. There is experimental evidence for the existence of the GOOD IS UP conceptual metaphor. However, this past research has only assessed the validity of the GOOD IS UP conceptual metaphor with written emotion-related words. In order to paint an accurate picture of the nature of conceptual representation, both written and spoken language processing must be investigated. The aim of this thesis was to determine whether the conceptual metaphor GOOD IS UP is activated by processing of spoken emotional words. Spoken language has two channels through which emotion can be conveyed; the semantic channel and the prosodic channel. This thesis assessed whether the GOOD IS UP conceptual metaphor was activated by emotional semantics and prosody separately. Semantically or prosodically valenced words were presented to participants. Positive and negative valence would be expected to elicit activation of the GOOD IS UP conceptual metaphor; thus GOOD IS UP congruent shifts in attention were expected. Following presentation of the spoken word, a visual target detection and identification task was completed to assess attention to upper and lower space. No metaphor congruent shifts in attention were observed, which suggests that the GOOD IS UP conceptual metaphor was not activated when words with semantic or prosodic emotion were processed. A thorough evaluation is provided of the differences between the previous studies, using written stimuli, and the current studies, using spoken stimuli. The discrepancies suggest that it is theoretically important to define the boundary conditions under which evidence for conceptual metaphor congruent activation is (and is not) seen. Whether context is an important boundary condition especially needs to be considered. A multiple systems view of representation may need to be applied to Conceptual Metaphor Theory.