TCM's: Resources for Promoting Figurative/Metaphorical Language

Introduction

The metaphor is seen as a form of semantic conflict induced by the anomalous combination of the conventional meanings of its main constituents-tenor (content) and vehicle - and the understanding of the metaphor is framed as a metasemantic ability based on the analysis of these meanings [1].

In a metaphor, the vehicle is the linguistic figure in itself, that is, the immediate image that incorporates or “carries” the tenor (the theme or content of the metaphor). The interaction of the vehicle results and the content give meaning to the metaphor.

The authors propose a Piagetian functionalist framework, based on Piaget’s last equilibrium model [2, 3, 4], to analyze how this semantic conflict can be faced and resolved by children in the considered development period.

Investigation Paper

Is understanding metaphors a “thing for children” or not? The authors believe that it is, provided that metaphors similar to those that children of that age spontaneously produce and that a “game” is established with them are presented. Understanding and knowing how to explain the meaning of metaphors is a complex skill, whose relevance was perceived by various sectors of psychology (cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, developmental psychology, psychoanalysis and other theoretical currents of clinical psychology, social psychology, sport psychology, etc.), generating, for over forty years, a vast scientific literature.

Methodology and instruments

TCM

It is a paper and pencil instrument, consisting of 12 items subdivided into 2 groups of metaphors:

From a structural point of view, the TCM is composed of two parts, corresponding to two different types of metaphors, called “physical-psychological” and “conceptual” [5].

The distinction is based on certain semantic characteristics of the two main components of the metaphor that we introduced earlier, the “tenor” and the “vehicle”, T and V, and the different relationships that are established between them. In physical-psychological metaphors, the two terms belong to different semantic-conceptual domains: one is taken from the universe of human beings, while the other derives from the inanimate universe of physical objects. An example of this is the phrase “The prison guard is a rock” which, expressed to convey information about a psychological quality, establishes a connection between the physical domain (hard rocks) and the domain of psychological traits (obstinate lack of feeling). In conceptual metaphors, however, certain concepts or ideas are linked to a concrete object, such as in the example “Memory is a sieve”, through which we want to express some functional (in this case, dysfunctional) aspects of the memory process. However, the limits are not always so clear, so it can be difficult to decide when a metaphor is unmistakably physical-psychological or conceptual [6].

12 items were constructed, divided symmetrically into 6 items containing physical-psychological metaphors and 6 items containing conceptual metaphors

Conclusion and Recommendations

In addition to being able to function as an assessment tool, it will be a useful intervention tool for the educator.